Blood and Ember (Version 2)

Verse

Blood in the gutter where the old king burned down

Bastard on a bike and a jacket turned up brown

I stood on the corner watching the smoke go gray

Every hound from the block came running my way

Told them I ain't nobody — told them leave me alone

But the fire got something else in it that just don't belong

Something about surviving when they said you'd drown

Fire and dust got into my bones like a promise unbound

The block thought I was dead before the sun came up

Thought the whole thing was over — no backup, no luck

Just one bullet left in the clip and the will to keep moving

So I walked through that smoke till it started clearing —

Every face that didn't know me turned into a witness —

Somebody remembered where they saw you bleeding —

They told the young boys on the corner don't go near me

Told them I'm still burning — every wound's got a reason to be

I ain't asking for mercy — I just asking if they see

Pre-Chorus

Can you feel the ember glow when it won't quit?

Can you hear the block turn quiet when it hits?

This ain't revenge — this is just walking through the flame

Chorus

Blood and ember, running past the smoke screen —

Burning on my own so I don't ever bend —

No name but this name that they forgot tonight —

I'm the one still standing under the streetlight

Verse 2

Copper wire glowing where the old fire station stood

Every scar got a story and every scar is good

They tried to lock me up in paper — tried to write my death cold

But I pulled the chair right out from underneath — made them watch it go to gold

The whole city's got a mirror in their hand — don't know what they're looking at

Somebody see the ember and somebody see a rat

I ain't afraid of the light because the light just shows what's real

Every face I pass is a stranger but every stranger remembers how you feel

They built me out of the same ash that burned down the block — nothing new to prove — just this

So when they ask me who I am — I just look at my hands and say that's proof

Pre-Chorus

Can you hear the ember glow when it won't quit?

Can you feel the smoke pull back every time it hits?

This ain't a miracle — this is just walking through the flame —

Chorus

Blood and ember, running past the smoke screen —

Burning on my own so I don't ever bend —

No name but this name that they forgot tonight —

I'm the one still standing under the streetlight

Bridge

If every hand went up for me at once instead of a gun — maybe it wouldn't feel like running from nobody — maybe it would just be home —

But that ain't how the ember gets lit — that's how embers get left behind

So I'm still moving till there ain't nothing left to hold onto — nothing else but this —

Nothing else but blood and ember, running past the smoke screen —