Cinder Block Joy

[Verse 1]
I live in the space between your fork and the plate
at that all-night spot off the Belt Parkway gate.
Last Tuesday, just before ten, I was almost born,
a tremor in your throat, a promise left untorn.
The vinyl of the booth seat was colder than your hand
as you mapped the cracks in the mug, a forgotten land.

[Pre-Chorus]
Your knuckles went white on the table's cheap chrome
You almost let me out, you almost brought me home.

[Chorus]
And I'm not a ghost, I'm just a better plan,
the truest thing that never began.
I'm cinder block joy, holding up the rust,
a perfect silence you decided to trust.

[Verse 2]
"More cream?" the waitress asked, a crack in the spell,
you learned back on Patapsco Street how to build a cell.
You think of that key you carry, the one with no door,
the one you check your pocket for, what you're checking it for.
I would have been an anchor, I would have been a weight.
You let me dissolve. You chose your own fate.

[Pre-Chorus]
Your knuckles went white on the table's cheap chrome
You almost let me out, you almost brought me home.

[Chorus]
And I'm not a ghost, I'm just a better plan,
the truest thing that never began.
I'm cinder block joy, holding up the rust,
a perfect silence you decided to trust.

[Bridge]
Some words are just cages, some words are just chains.
I'm the dry patch of pavement under all of the rain.

[Outro]
A better plan.
Never began.