Riptide meridian, that's the line I cross (Version 2)

Intro

Salt on the collar, dust on the boots

Four in the morning, counting the roots

Verse

Corner store light flickers, buzzing like a hornet's nest

Momma's rosary swinging, pressed against my chest

Sixteen and hustling, tacos in the cooler, cash in a sock

Every dollar a heartbeat, every heartbeat a clock

Borrowed boots too big, stuffing socks in the toe

Walking to the docks where the diesel and the current flow

Captain says the tide turns at a line nobody sees

Riptide meridian, that's the deal that I need

Uncle lost his boat there, swallowed whole by the swell

I ain't scared of drowning, I've been drowning since twelve

Every wave that breaks me teaches me how to swim

Every debt I'm paying pulling gold from within

Sister sewing patches on the jacket I wear

Says the current gonna carry me past the fear

I don't pray for calm seas, I pray for the nerve

To ride the line where the ocean and the ambition curve

Chorus

Riptide meridian, that's the line I cross

Half the map is heaven, half is what I lost

Riptide meridian, pulling at my chest

Every current calling, I won't rest, I won't rest

Verse

Two years later, calluses turned into currency

Diesel in my knuckles, salt water in my history

Bought my mother curtains, bought my brother boots that fit

Every peso that I bury grows a little more legit

Cousins say I'm lucky, I say luck's a myth we tell

When the debt collector's calling every hour like a bell

I stack the crates at midnight, sell the catch before the dawn

Watch the rich boys' yachts cut through the water where I'm born

They don't know the meridian, they just see the shore

I know every inch of hunger that made me want more

Doubt sits in the bow like a passenger too proud

I paddle through the whisper, I don't answer when it's loud

Loyalty's the anchor, keeps me tethered to the ground

Even when the current tries to turn my compass round

I carved my name in driftwood, threw it back into the tide

Told the ocean I'm arriving, not asking for a ride

Chorus

Riptide meridian, that's the line I cross

Half the map is heaven, half is what I lost

Riptide meridian, pulling at my chest

Every current calling, I won't rest, I won't rest

Bridge

Some nights the meridian feels farther than the moon

Some nights I count the losses like a broken metronome's tune

But the boat don't stop for weather, and the boy don't stop for doubt

I built my church on saltwater, that's the faith I'm speaking about

No map was ever drawn for where I'm trying to go

So I follow what the current and my mother's candle know

Outro

Riptide meridian, written on my skin

Half the world behind me, half the world to win

Salt on the collar, dust turned into gold

This is the line where the lost boys' story's told