Scar-Lip Rising

Verse

Corner of the block where the frost never breaks

Melted a chainlink fence with my bare hands for a rake.

Watched the whole block build from a fire I lit

Nineteen and hungry, no family to split it — that's it.

Sneakers were taped on with twine and hope

Ran a mile up the hill 'fore the cops closed the scope.

Caught a charge by sixteen for something I needed

Pre-Chorus

So tell me how you build when they sew your mouth shut tight?

Tell me how you keep burning when they've locked the door light?

Chorus

I kept my teeth inside and carved out every wall

Made the corner rise up before they locked it at all

Blood on my knuckles, salt in my jawline — scar-lip rising

Watch the whole town swallow everything we're hiding

Verse

Went to juvenile 'cause I wouldn't fold

Sat beside the kid who killed his own father, told

Every story he's never heard but needs to know

Spoke through a mouthful of silence nobody could read.

Sister came to visit — she had her head shaved clean

Marched down the hallway with a quiet that was mean

Pre-Chorus

So tell me how you build when they sew your mouth shut tight?

Tell me how you keep burning when they've locked the door light?

Chorus

I kept my teeth inside and carved out every wall

Made the corner rise up before they locked it at all

Blood on my knuckles, salt in my jawline — scar-lip rising

Watch the whole town swallow everything we're hiding

Bridge

The mouth may heal but the fire don't — that's the thing

I built a city under words I couldn't sing

Every block still breathing where the chain used to be

And when they finally open, watch it run like free water — free