Weight I Carry Smooth

Intro

Straps on my shoulder, calloused where the rope was

Every job we take, we carry somebody's whole life across

Verse 1

Six a.m., the truck coughs awake on Denny Street

Rosario hands me gloves, says grip it, don't retreat

We carry couches down four flights, springs busted, foam torn

Old man's whole apartment folded into boxes worn

He watches from the curb like we're stealing his whole spring

Nah pop, we just moving what the landlord couldn't keep

My back learned early how to bend without the crack

Learned to lift a stranger's grief and never hand it back

Tape gun sings a hymn, zzzt then silence, then again

Cardboard walls holding forty years of where he's been

I don't ask the story, I just strap it to the dolly

Wheel it past the mailbox where his name's still on it, folly

Some nights I'm the one that's crying in the cab

Wipe it quick before Rosario sees, keep the sorrow scrubbed

Cause the job ain't done till the truck doors shut clean

Learned to carry weight so smooth, don't nobody see the seam

Hook

Weight I carry smooth, ain't nobody see me sweat

Weight I carry smooth, every debt gon' get met

Weight I carry smooth, back bent but the walk stay straight

That's the only inheritance that came with my name

Verse 2

Second job, third floor, elevator's had a sign since June

Say out of order like it's mocking every move

Miss Odalys crying cause her son's things gotta go

Eviction paper folded where the rent receipts used to show

I carry his trophies, dust still on the little gold man

Carry her Bible separate, wrapped it soft as I can

She slips me an extra twenty, say baby you're too kind

I say ma'am we all just moving what we leave behind

My own mama's couch still in storage, unit forty-three

Two years now, can't afford the weight of memory

Funny how I lift the world for people down the block

But my own front door still got that busted lock

Rosario says you good, kid, you carry too much home

I say nah, I carry it here, that's how I keep it my own

Learned the difference between broke and being broken

Weight don't bend me, I just chose the load I'm holding

Hook

Weight I carry smooth, ain't nobody see me sweat

Weight I carry smooth, every debt gon' get met

Weight I carry smooth, back bent but the walk stay straight

That's the only inheritance that came with my name

Bridge

Rosario retired last spring, passed the straps to me

Said kid the truck is yours now, and the weight comes free

I finally rented that storage unit down to n