Alake's Shadow

[Verse 1]
The harmattan haze on Adeniran Ogunsanya street, a last Tuesday in December.
He stands by the gutter, the new Gucci suede dey gather the red dust forever.
The air tastes of rust and laterite, generators are quiet for once.
He watches the scaffolds on a new high-rise disappear, sun going down, just this once.

[Chorus]
They say when the dust is thick enough you see Alake's shadow fall.
He built the whole road, every brick, every wall.
But him key broke for inside the lock of him own front door.
E dey find the way home, but the house no dey there anymore.

[Verse 2]
"Na the dust," one aunty tell am, stirring her pot of stew.
"E dey carry face wey we think say we knew."
Femi touches the cold iron of a gate he used to climb.
A stress fracture runs through the pillar, a victim of the time.

[Chorus]
They say when the dust is thick enough you see Alake's shadow fall.
He built the whole road, every brick, every wall.
But him key broke for inside the lock of him own front door.
E dey find the way home, but the house no dey there anymore.

[Bridge]
His grandfather used to whisper it, in a language he barely knew:
"Obi nkyerɛ obi ase," and now he sees the truth.
A blueprint passed down through the blood, a pattern you can't escape.

[Outro]
He built the road...
...lost the key.