Expired Still Good

Verse 1

Bus bench on Fulton

Sticker peelin off the pole

Grey pigeon dragging a wing through the gravel

Dude in the slicker asked the time I told him I don't know

Weather done turned the corner twice

I carry change for the machine they moved across the lot

The laundromat windows yellow

Old woman mouthing numbers at the ledger

She ain't look up when the door bit the frame

I gave her the dry quarter by the flicker

Steam fogging the glass till the block went soft as a bruise

Verse 2

Corner store cassette tape in the bin sealed crooked

Teen on the stoop playing it off

His boy laughing at the crooked half

They pass the blunt like a relay

Nobody winning

The corner light stuttered and went out again

That's when I remembered how the porch swung

Back in the summer my uncle fixed the chain

He said the storm always come dropping your name

I laughed then

Now I chew the words like a cold sandwich

Walk off slow

Listen to my own fade

Verse 3

Check cashing spot on Western

Man in the line counts his breaths between the glass

The clerk slides the slip with a rubber band

He holds it flat like a prayer he forgot

Radio hums the middle of a song nobody knows

I duck into the bus that never comes

Ride the back and watch the rooftops lean

Somebody left a glove on the rail

I keep it folded in my pocket

A map to a city I keep misreading on purpose

Verse 4

Paper bag full of nothing but the rain

I walk the long way past the old bakery

Bricks remember cheaper bread

The sign's been flipped to closed since March

I don't knock

Some doors just want to stay shut and honest

Back at the bench the pigeon's gone

Two kids chalk the sidewalk yellow

They argue about a circle

Tilt their heads at the lines I can't trace

I sit and let the day fold me in half

Minnesota license in my back pocket

Eight years expired

Still good enough to hold