By The Gentilly Girl
Don't look ahead, there's stormy weather
Another roadblock in our way
But if we go, we go together
Our hands are tied here if we stay
I don’t want to do this anymore.
The thrill is gone from it,
Car to car,
Neighborhood by neighborhood,
Elysian Fields,
North Dorgenois,
St. Charles,
Uptown,
Downtown,
Gentilly,
Bywater.
It gets monotonous sometimes,
Running,
From everything you know
And love
In order
To keep them safe.
My mom cooks the beans
In our grandma’s old pot.
We sent her away
A while ago.
Hasn’t been the same.
The shotgun
On South Dupre
Sits empty
All those memories
Dormant with it.
Oh, we said our dreams will carry us
And if they don't fly, we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh, how to win what they all lost
The police try to find us.
Everyone is helpless.
Eggs cost more than dreams.
We stay out.
Burning til midnight,
The Hyundais and Kias
Firmly in
Our tiny grasp.
We never knew the world
As they do.
Yet we find ourselves here
NBA Youngboy
On our shiny new stereos,
That we will trash soon,
For the hustle
Never ends.
We know we shall be found,
Thrown on ground,
Asphalt burning our cheeks.
Yet we smile
As we know
The heart of the city
Lies in us.
We entertain them,
Banging our drums,
For the gawking of the public.
It gets harder,
Money strapped,
Bombs behind our backs.
We shall be sent
To where God touches the sky.
Or perhaps,
Where concrete meets dirt,
If we continue this silly game
Of Duck Duck Goose,
Falsely chasing
A dream
We know
Is only set
For the ones that
Claim to be like us.
But when they find
Their success,
They leave
Behind.
So let them say we can't do better
Lay out the rules that we can't break
They wanna sit and watch you wither
Their legacy's too hard to take
They antagonize us,
The ones that force upon us,
These invisible shackles
Of other-ness.
You can be like them,
Be near them,
Be prepared, though.
They siphon,
Then leave you,
Out to bleed,
Your humanity
Left in shards,
As they wash over it,
With variegated paint.
In their heads, hedging their bets
In their eyes it shows
When the beacon breaks, what then?
You ask and they don't know
Oh, tell me that
I turn my back while the odds all stand beneath me
And they all said I was misled
But now the odds all stand beneath me.
We hear them run, but don't hear what you say
Now here we come, can't throw nothing in our way
We hear them run, but don't hear what you say
Now here we come, can't throw nothing in our way.