Criminal

I’ve been hiding under edges since it drove me

To the concrete where I’d never been before

I am still here but I’m not living just existing, just surviving

Taught to never expect more

In the middle of a system that’s a failure

I’m a failure, system tells me every day

When you’re running with your fear you’re getting weaker but you’re acting braver

I’m not making choices here

They’re sending a message, though they keep it subliminal

I live in a city where too little is criminal

My existence is a mongrel sniffing round all their pedigrees

They’ll keep me at survival before they risk any legacy

I’m trying to stay out of the cold this winter

RAP is never pardoned in the sovereign south

And it sticks in my neck like a metal splinter

No one will help me get it out

Ancestry brought master servant to my country

And the masters built their gaols with their servants’ hands

Fat necks spilling over stiffened white starched collars

Consorting in the Member’s Stand

They’re sending a message, though they keep it subliminal

I live in a city where too little is criminal

My existence is a mongrel sniffing ‘round all their pedigrees

They’ll keep me at survival before they risk any legacies

And here on the rising panic there are conversations

If you can’t feed yourself, it’s your fault and your failures

We’re all playing cards being spat from above us

But don’t pretend you got what you got ‘cos you worked any harder

They’re sending a message, though they keep it subliminal

I live in a city where too little is criminal

My existence is an anchor on the yacht that they’re sailing

Their passage now relies on the rest of us failing