SETTLING BONES

[Verse 1]
My spine is the main beam, my skin is the plaster dust,
Since nineteen-fifty-three I been breathing in D.C. rust.
I feel the tremor from the 70 bus on Georgia Ave, the window glass just shudders,
I’ve held the weight of christenings, and arguments between your mother’s mothers.
They scraped the lead paint off my lips but I remember every flavor,
Watched the termites in their motorcades, askin' God to do a favor.
I wear the water stains like keloids, each one tells a different story,
My iron gate on Peabody Street is a fence against their morning glory.

[Chorus]
When the summer humidity makes my wooden joints all swell,
Do you think these floorboards know the secrets that you’ll never tell?
When the radiator knocks like a code you can’t make out,
Is it my ghost in the wires or your own damn doubt?

[Verse 2]
I see you at my kitchen table, the one with the cigarette scorch,
Counting sticky singles, building up a different kind of fortress.
Used to be your history book, the light reflecting off the page,
Now it’s stacks of crumpled portraits of a dead man in a cage.
Heard you mutter, "This ain't enough," right before you locked the front.
Felt the key grind in my teeth, another month, another hunt.
The mambo sauce smell from the takeout bag is staining my old grain,
You're wipin' down the surface just to get it clean of all the strain.

[Chorus]
When the summer humidity makes my wooden joints all swell,
Do you think these floorboards know the secrets that you’ll never tell?
When the radiator knocks like a code you can’t make out,
Is it my ghost in the wires or your own damn doubt?

[Bridge]
They wanna paint me gray, call it "urban chic revival."
My foundation holds the rage that’s key to your survival.

[Instrumental Breakdown]
(No vocals for 20 seconds)

[Outro]
The front step's cracked in the same place.
Still holding your name. Still holding this space.