Lost Me

It was maybe 92 or maybe 95

Territorial every neighbor ain't yo neighbor

Ain't the tribe

Conditions and adversity

Attempts to stay alive

Keep it off the radar be discrete

And then we'll thrive

Fresh powder but it don't

Really snow on this side

I tell her pretty words

Every time is the last

But if them **** down

The street try me then we slide

Panthers sons and daughters

Militant off in the mind

I just want a piece a piece of apple pie

A slice of tire swings where

picket fences stand up high

Am l just a **** are my leg ups just a lie

Ignore the fact the we don't have the ships

To fund the crime

All my peers got narrow eyes

Prison poses and pipelines

The rich don't get it clean

I even sold my moms a dime

I'm still a boy inside I'm still her boy inside

Today I'm forty nine

Pay phones pager and FaceTime

They share a laugh over how

Much he missed while confined

But she can't feel his presence

Through half-inch or landline

Is it bloodline

All her sisters same noses same trauma different focus

But they know it's hopeless for amends

Fix her lips to say I appreciate your story

Even though we can't begin again

You made cuts deeper than skin

Past the bones and white meat

No pops to cuddle me to sleep

And that's where you lost me

And I've been lookin for love

I'm starting to believe that it was made up

Cause all these empty tears and hollow words

Who let all the smoke In here

Mirrors smolder can't you smell

Little pyres everywhere

And that's where you lost me

Now it's oh six oblivious to who she is

Gucci on the radio, Jeezy gave us hits

Tall tees and snowmen kool aid for the kids

Maybe if I was hard enough then I'd have

Dope boy magic

Wanted locs like Wayne

But singles were what auntie did

Same time I got the braids first time

He called me faggot

Put a stain on my masculinity

A dim on self expression

Lick my wounds wit thc

Entangled with depression

Secrets playing hide and seek

I'm reaching for connection

Extension through a shell we

Pull back another lesson

Present my problems feel so first world

Can't stand to see them struggle

But I'm homeless like them little girls

We link She tell me how much profits

In them beds

Gods turned skeleton in dimensions of a shed

Conditions inhumane

Camp more concentration

But families never forget

These pieces of men

And I've been lookin for love

I'm starting to believe that it was made up

Cause all these empty tears and hollow words

Who let all the smoke In here

Mirrors smolder can't you smell

Little pyres everywhere

And that's where you lost me

But I never lost me