On this Gravel Road...

Mama counts cans, lights cut on Tuesday

Church on Sunday, pray rent come through, hey

Food stamps stretch like barbed on a fence line

Rust on the truck but we still gotta get by

Outsiders talk like it’s easy here

Like a prize in my pocket I don’t see this year

Tell me ’bout a ladder I ain’t never been near

Only steps that I know go down to the pier

House leaned over, rains through the rooftop

Pills in the creek, boys sleep on a fold-out

Cousin did time for the same thing they scroll past

Judge hit him hard, said “you people just don’t last”

On this gravel road, tell me where’s my privilege

Hand-me-down hope, broke bones, broke bridges

If I’m so blessed, why the fridge stay splinter?

Why the heat cut off every time it’s winter?

Say I’m born on 3rd

But I’m still in the ditch

Y’all keep talkin’ ’bout a world

I ain’t never been rich

On this gravel road, tell me where’s my privilege

Same storm, same sky, different pigment

I know history cut deep, yeah, I read that page

See the chain-line, headline, old hate, same rage

I ain’t sayin’ you ain’t hurt, I ain’t claim your pain

Just sayin’ I ain’t cashin’ checks off your last name

Never owned nothin’ but the bills in my surname

Granddad coughed black dust, died for a work wage

Textbook say I’m “the man” in the hallway

But the rent man see me and he laugh in a cold way

Politicians point fingers so we point ’em too

Fightin’ over crumbs in a big man’s room

They sit back, sip sweet when the pot boils

While we scrap, same class, same soil

On this gravel road, tell me where’s my privilege

Hand-me-down hope, broke bones, broke bridges

If I’m so blessed, why the fridge keep splinter

Why the heat cut off every time it’s winter?

Say I’m born on 3rd

But I’m still in the ditch

Y’all keep talkin’ ’bout a world

I ain’t never been rich

On this gravel road, tell me where’s my privilege

Same storm, same sky, different pigment

Maybe both of us hurt, just in different ways

Both tired of the lines that they draw on our names

If they keep us swingin’, we don’t aim up

Two chairs break while they fill their cup

On this gravel road, tell me where’s my privilege

Hand-me-down hope, broke bones, broke bridges

If we both broke down, who they come to fix first?

Why we both in the back of the same old church?

Say we born on 3rd

But we stuck in the ditch

Only way that we win

When we see who got rich

On this gravel road, tell me where’s my privilege

Same storm, same sky, different pigment

Say my story simple

You ain't seen these roads at night

When the gas gauge flirting empty

And the pills cost more than life

Stop pointing at my pigment

Like a winning lottery slip

My people on the same cold floor

Different accent, same chip lips (skrrrt)

If this is white privilege

Where’s my silver spoon?

Where’s that magic money

I’m supposed to lose?

Got holes in my sneakers

Got bills past due

If this is white privilege

It ain’t come through (hey skrrrt)