Streetlight Sermons (Version 2)

Verse

Corner store bulb flickering like it's tired of the block

Same three benches where we learned to watch our locks

Pulpit's the phone booth glass where I preached my name

Sixteen bars on a receipt for change

Cashier said

,,raper

I said

,,climbing through the frame

Every rung they took away was something I'd rebuild

Welded metal out of junkyard scraps that stood

Sneakers cracked from nights that didn't turn my way

But every doubt got written down as yesterday

Chorus

They called it static in the wire, said it wouldn't hold

I called it proof before the gold

City said we weren't worth a block of light

I said the shadows carry torches through the night

Every no became the lesson, every no became the rule

Now they call me preacher when the whole street gathers 'round the tool

The same hands that doubted now they follow what I found

Verse

Bus stop bench at midnight, pen against my palm

Every crack in pavement was a sermon I couldn't calm

Uncle said

,,'you chasing embers that'll never burn