No way back

Came up where the porch light flicker and die, Where the kids learn early how to look in your eye, Hear sirens sing lullabies all through the night, See a name on a tee before they learn to drive. Corner store prayers and a pocket of change, Folks sell hope cheap, but the price stay strange, Landlord knockin’, fridge hummin’ with pain, Got a stomach full of hunger and a head full of rage. Big bro gone, little sister need shoes, Mama work doubles, still got overdue news, Everybody got advice, nobody got a fuse Long enough to light a path when there’s nothin’ to lose. No way back when the road cave in, No way out when the dark move in, We were born where the pain got roots, Tryna grow through concrete with a hole in the roof. No way back, hear the train tracks cry, No way back when another friend die, Still I walk through the smoke, ten toes intact, But it feel like the world got no way back. Yellow tape wave in the wind like flags, Everybody know the story, nobody ask, Candle wax drip on a picture in glass, Another mother bent low by a future that passed. They say “make it out,” like it’s simple to leave, Like the block don’t remember every face that you’ve seen, Like the debt, the grief, the streets don’t breathe Down your neck every time you dare to believe. My homie had plans, had a beat, had a pen, Said he’d turn all the hurt into a record for them, Then the phone rang twice and the world just bent— Now his voice live on in the static again. I don’t praise the trap, I just know what it does, How it turns empty cupboards into temporary love, How it whispers, “You’re stuck,” when you’re desperate enough, Then it takes what it gave and leaves blood in the dust. No way back when the road cave in, No way out when the dark move in, We were born where the pain got roots, Tryna grow through concrete with a hole in the roof. No way back, hear the train tracks cry, No way back when another friend die, Still I walk through the smoke, ten toes intact, But it feel like the world got no way back. If the sun come up, will it shine on us? If we scream loud enough, will somebody trust That beneath all this anger, beneath all this rust, There’s a kid still alive tryna find some love? So I write for the ones in the back of the bus, For the ones told “be strong” when they’re breaking from dust, For the ones in the courtroom, the ones on the run, For the ones who got trapped before life had begun. No clean ending where the pain disappear, Just a crack in the wall and a little more air, Maybe hope ain’t a promise, maybe hope is the dare To wake up one more morning when despair still there. I seen hard hearts soften when a child start laugh, Seen a lost soul change when they found one path, So the title says “No Way Back,” that’s facts— But maybe forward’s a door through the smoke and ash. Rain on the window, blue lights cut black Names in the pavement, memories stacked We carry the weight, we carry the past No way back… but we still move past.