Flicker & Fade

Yeah...

Just tryna catch my breath in the static.

This one's for the nights that talk back.

Woke up to the hum of the fridge light buzzin'

No sun, just a blue screen cousin

Ashtray thoughts and a coffee cup sermon

My mind spins like records I'm burnin'

Half of my crew still sleep in their dreams

Other half hustlin' with ripped-up jeans

I'm somewhere in between—midnight lean

Tryna write poems from a vending machine

Cracked phone glowin’ like a ghost in the sink

Think I saw my reflection blink

I talk to my past through a hole in the wall

Like, "yo, did you ever make peace at all?"

I flicker and fade

Like a match on a windy day

Got words I'll never say

Tucked back in the deep of my brain

But the beat still plays

Yeah the beat still plays

Even when I flicker and fade...

Ayo, I ghost text people I love

Then hate myself for not showin’ up

I keep notes in a shoebox, laced with dust

Like old mixtapes no one plays but us

Rode the bus past my high school twice

Still feel like that kid tryna get life right

Still afraid of my dad’s advice

But I still wear his jacket at night

Ain’t much gold in this rusted chain

But I rap like the pain’s champagne

Pop the cork, spill a verse in the rain

'Til the city drags me home like a runaway train

Maybe I'm broke in a beautiful way

Like glass turned beach sand someday

We all got waves, we all got breaks

I just surf mine with a pen and a crate

I flicker and fade

Like a match on a windy day

Got words I'll never say

Tucked back in the deep of my brain

But the beat still plays

Yeah the beat still plays

Even when I flicker and fade...

Don't worry if you lost your light...

The beat knows the way home.