Camry Devotion

[Verse 1]
The '98 Camry key still got the bite marks on the plastic head,
From that one winter you were working doubles, running on fumes and bread.
I can feel the worn-down ridges cold against my palm, a coded map,
Of every turn you made on Cleveland Ave to climb out of the trap.
The ignition was a prayer you had to whisper, hoping it would catch,
A decade of your life spent trying to un-do a faulty latch.
You were building something solid out of sheet rock, sweat, and cheap-grade gas,
I was watching from the passenger side, praying the damn thing lasts.

[Chorus]
And you just kept turning the key.
That was all, you just kept turning the key.
Every single morning, for me.
Yeah, that broken motor was the start of everything.

[Verse 2]
Now I'm staring at the city skyline, lit up like a circuit board,
From a lobby desk that pays the bills and keeps me from getting bored.
Remember you told me, tired, putting groceries on the second shelf,
"Son, you just gotta keep the voltage steady, work it out yourself."
Thought you were talking 'bout the house, the bad wiring in the kitchen wall,
Took me 'til twenty-seven to realize what you meant at all.
This whole foundation's yours, I'm just the guard who watches over it at night,
Tracing the blueprint of your sacrifice under this blue screen light.

[Chorus]
And you just kept turning the key.
That was all, you just kept turning the key.
Every single morning, for me.
Yeah, that broken motor was the start of everything.

[Bridge]
All the stress fractures in the concrete, all the rebar showing through,
That was the price of admission, every single crack belongs to you.
The engine noise was the only hymn we had some frozen Tuesday dawns,
And it was more than enough to keep us going on.

[Outro]
(Sound of a key turning in an old ignition, catching on the second try)
It still runs.