Neon Ghosts

(Spoken – together) “ They told us if we chased the light we’d never catch it.

So we stopped running. Started walking with the shadows.”

(Beat drops)

Four in the morning, the city’s a bruise

Purple and yellow from the neon abuse

I walk past billboards that promise a cure

But the cure is a credit score, hollow and pure

My homie just called, said he got a new chain

I say: “ Does it weigh more than the weight in your brain?”

He laughs, but the silence after says enough

We both playing rich, but our pockets are stuffed with the dust of a dream that was never ours

I used to think fame was a river – you swim ‘ til you reach the far side

Now I see fame is a mirror that shows you the parts where you lied

To yourself, to your mom, to the girl with the braids

Who believed in your rhymes before you got paid

I see you walking, hoodie up, same route every night

You don’t remember me – I used to sit in the back at your open mic

You rapped about freedom, I was impressed

Now you rap about lawyers and rubber checks

I left that game two winters ago

Not because I failed – because I started to know

That the stage is a cage with a nicer lock

And the crowd claps louder when you bleed for the clock

(snap)

I sell flowers now, from a cart on Broad Street

My hands are always dirty, but my sleep is complete

You still checking your streams on the bathroom floor?

I’m checking the sunrise – last time I checked, it was free

Neon ghosts, take us slow

Through the streets where the dreamers go

We don’t need the crown or the overflow

Just a pen that works and a truth that shows