Yo…sometimes you see ‘em you know
Just part of the scenery
But everybody’s story got a before the fall
Lemme show you…
Saw a shadow on the sidewalk wrapped in cardboard and grief
Eyes like a lost dog lookin’for a missing belief
I walked past at first but the image got stuck
Like how you end up with nothin’Was it money or luck
Was it a business that folded a hand that you folded on
A promise you told ’em then watched it get stolen from
Your grasp Or a woman who left with your laugh
Now the only thing left is the back of a flask
Maybe the phone just stopped ringing one year
No more “I love you ”just silence to hear
So you traded a house for a bottle and a bench
Let the numbness take over not a wince not a wrench
Just a slow fade out from a man to a ghost
The thing you feared most…became the thing you host
See the pavement ain’t a choice it’s a final resort
It’s a story cut short by a world that distorts
Every hand you was dealt every card that you felt
‘Til the shelter you built just…melts
It ain’t always the drugs or the thug or the pride
Sometimes the person you loved just…died inside
So you walk with the stains let it soak through the seams
‘Cause you stopped havin’dreams now you just have the means…to survive
Look some choose the gutter a slow form of suicide
Sayin’“I tried to provide but the system denied”
“My resume’s trash my back is a map of the pain”
“Another rejection Pour the rain on the stain”
They start with a car then the car is the bed
Then the wheels get sold now the ground is the spread
It’s a spiral a cycle nobody wakes up one day
And says “I think I’ll throw my whole life away”
It’s a thousand small cuts a million little “no’s”
A family that left a well that run dry I suppose
Could be pride that won’t let ‘em call for a hand
Could be shame that keeps ‘em stuck in the sand
He was the CEO once now the corner is his throne
A kingdom of one in a world made of stone
See the pavement ain’t a choice it’s a final resort
It’s a story cut short by a world that distorts
Every hand you was dealt every card that you felt
‘Til the shelter you built just…melts
It ain’t always the drugs or the thug or the pride
Sometimes the person you loved just…died inside
So you walk with the stains let it soak through the seams
‘Cause you stopped havin’dreams now you just have the means…to survive
I see you lookin’but you don’t really see
You think it’s a choice between a man and a fiend
But the difference between you and the man on the grate
Is a paycheck away a pink slip a twist of fate
A diagnosis that cleans out the rest of your savings
One funeral missed that starts all the craving
For solitude bitterness “why even bother”
One less connection one more that you father
Forgot to show up for now you’re showin’up here
With a shopping cart full of your old career
So before you just label him “lazy”or “crazy”
Remember the story you don’t know maybe
He was just like you ’til the thread came undone
In a world that needs winners…but creates the unsung
Yeah…
Feet fail me not this could be my shot
To see the soul that’s still there even when it’s lost
‘Cause the only thing dividin’me from that spot…
Is a little bit of luck and a whole lot of what I got
So I’ma stop walkin’past and I’ma start to see
‘Cause that homeless man…might’ve been me
You feel me
Just a different turn a different burn…
Let it lesson learned
