///My pops said/// Take these shells/ + little rocks
They’re protection spells/ for the walk/ through the hell
You done made yourself/ now take yourself/
from the house where I raised you, praised you, son I’m dazed you

Couldn’t pull your ass up a little further
Smashed up, raising a glass/ losing the fervor
You used to have it in church, but now you lost it
Tossed in the dirt/ shit it hurts to be your father

Why bother/ sacrificing to see/ half your life in a seed
I pray every night/ in the afterlife I get peace
These years tore me apart/ string by heart-string/
Darkening rings/ under my eyelids

Never could sleep without silence
Every ambulance that passed by/ blaring a siren
I saw your body inside, purple with violence
And when I could sleep/ I would dream visions of dying

I’m trying/ but I can’t look you in the eye
Same nose as me/ same shoulders and acne
Same filthy mouth that made your mother cry
Time after time/ boy, crime after crime

[Chorus]
Go son/ Take some bread for the road, son
Now I heard that you wrote some
Sad songs for me/ But I can’t stand to hear you sing

///Every day pops I work on my craft
Out on the park bench in Pritchard/ just birthing a raft
Building an ark from the dark of the past/ Trying to float
In a paper boat/ maybe I’ll crash/ maybe I won’t///

I don’t give a damn, son/ it’s all gravy
Your ramshackle singing and dancing don’t pay these bills
Mama’s ill, and the more you’re around
Stealing pills/ It’s just dragging us down

///I understand but it’s different now/// How is that
///Dad I’m clean/ I’m a different man/// You’re clean for now
But you’ll crash on the couch, spend cash on a pouch
Once a fiend/ always a fiend/ son, get out my house

///How can I change when I can’t even get a chance?
Just washed the windows and the floors and then did your sedan
Cooking you meals and you can’t look me in the eye?///
Take your broken wings and just fly

[Chorus]

///Trying to get back onto my feet here, pops/ A couple days
up in my old room/ eating/ it’s hon’ be cold soon
I need to put on some weight/ sit at the Eighty-eight
That gramma left for me in her wake/ playing some soul tunes///

Stop right there/ proceed with caution/ I’ll slap you
Right out of your chair/ rocking a cold stare
Keep your grandmama’s name out of your mouth
I’ll drag you under my truck/ straight out of the south

You killed her ///No I didn’t daddy I healed her
Or tried to/ Sitting beside her/ singing haikus///
But then you’d dig in her pockets/ Looking for rock hits,
Right til her cold eyes rolled back in their sockets

///I was broken then, pops/ smoking and hopeless
A shell of a man/ selling plasma/ having coke fits
I never meant to cause anyone else pain/ I’m saying
Can I just get some help?/// Go help yourself

[Chorus]