Copper Taste in the Stairwell

Intro

Fifth floor, elevator dead since spring

Stairwell smell like pennies, echo makes the silence ring

Verse

Denby Courts, cracked tile, bulb hanging by a thread

Seventeen with a duffel bag, cousin said go ahead

Told me walk it steady, keep your eyes up top

Landing three, two shadows waiting where the stairs drop

Fist came quick, split my lip, iron flooded through my teeth

Tasted copper first before I tasted fear underneath

Swallowed both together, held the bag in close

Could've swung back wild, could've let the anger loose

Mama sleeping two floors up, I thought of her instead

Walked the rest in silence, blood still warm and red

Set the bag down soft like nothing ever came

Cousin never asked why my collar had a stain

Just nodded, slid me twenty, said you handled that with brain

That's the night I learned control weighs more than any pain

Some debts you pay in patience, not in letting go

Some strength ain't in the swinging, it's in walking slow

Chorus

Copper taste in the stairwell, still I climb

Every step counted heavy, still on time

Copper taste in the stairwell, weight I hide

Made my peace on the landing, still alive

Verse

Ten years later, same stairwell, different crack in the wall

Sharpie tally by the doorframe counting every fall

Young boy named Trevon carrying heavier than me

Sixteen with a burner tucked, patrolling his own street

I stopped him on the landing, told him leave it upstairs

Steel don't fix a debt, it just adds to what you're owed there

He looked at me like I ain't understand the game

Told him copper taste will follow, carries like a name

I still feel it some nights, phantom on my tongue

Every time the building's quiet, every time it's young

Loyalty ain't loud, it's showing up at three

Sitting with a kid so he don't have to bleed like me

Landlord fixed the elevator, stairwell still gets used

Old habits built from struggle, hard as hell to lose

But I climb it every morning, teach what I was taught

Some strength ain't in the swinging, it's in knowing when to not

Chorus

Copper taste in the stairwell, still I climb

Every step counted heavy, still on time

Copper taste in the stairwell, weight I hide

Made my peace on the landing, still alive

Bridge

They talk about tearing Denby down next spring

Put up glass and gold letters, call it something clean

Won't matter where I stand though, taste don't wash with paint

Carry it in my jaw like a memory, no complaint

I ain't proud of every choice, I ain't shamed of none

Just a kid who chose the stairs over the gun

That's the only trophy this neighborhood ever gave

Something in the mouth I keep to remind me I was brave