Shadowboxers

[Verse 1]
(acapella)
"We used to practice combos on that heavy bag off Campbellton Road..."
(beat drops)
...back when the latency was just a dial-up modem groan.
We shared a corner, thought we had the same fight mapped, the same attack.
Studied the footwork, telegraphing jabs and never looking back.
The rhythm of the speed bag was the only metronome we'd ever need,
Spitting out prophecies on MARTA trains, planting a different seed.
You were the counter-puncher, I was all aggression in the pocket, see?
Two sides of the same damn coin, forged in the city's forgotten foundry.

[Chorus]
Now we're just shadowboxers in a quiet room,
fighting the memory of me, I'm fighting the ghost of you.
Throwing punches at the silence, where the love used to be,
'cause you can't knock out a man who ain't in the ring with me.

[Verse 2]
Then the main event arrived, the floodlights burned my retinas hot.
The prize fight purse was different than the future that we plotted.
I felt the distance growing in the clinch, a subtle shift of weight.
'You changed, man,' was the last thing that you texted, October 20-something, late.
That's a low blow, when you know I took the hits to make us both a plate.
A couple missed calls, the ice-cold silence seals a different fate.
This ain't no twelve-round classic, this the towel thrown from the second row,
I'm looking for my cutman, but you're just a name I used to know.

[Bridge]
(Drums and vocal only)
Was it the timing?
Or the footwork?
Did I leave my chin exposed, was I too busy with the good work?
I'm replaying every round, tryna find the slip, the single failed connection,
but the tape just shows two brothers fighting in opposing sections.

[Outro]
The bell rings to an empty arena now.
Just shadowboxers in a quiet room.