Still Here

Intro

Yeah...

Landed at six. Ain't tell nobody I was comin'.

Sat in the rental in the parking deck like twenty minutes.

Just... runnin' every reason I could think of to turn around.

Then I put it in drive.

That's the part don't nobody see.

Verse 1

The town look smaller now — or I got bigger, one of them

Same three streets I thought was the whole world back when I was in 'em

They put a gate up on the park. The pawn shop is a vape spot

Everything I used to be is under that blacktop

And Google still got the old block saved up on Street View

So the only place it's standing is a place you can't walk through

And I ain't been back here since the day they laid my brother down

I was on a stage that weekend. Somewhere loud. Out of town

His mama did a GoFundMe. I ain't even have to look

Sent it from the airport, closed the app, and closed the book

Told myself the tour don't stop. Told myself he'd understand

Two years later, still ain't said that sentence to his mom

That's the thing about the money — it don't fix what you avoid

It just buy you better rooms to be avoidant in. A void

They say the cloud remember everything you ever typed

It don't hold a funeral you skipped. That part is yours. That's life

Marcus at the corner store. He ain't ask me for nothin'

Just said "You look tired, boy." And I ain't have a thing to come with

'Cause he been right here the whole time. Same job. Same street. Same shoes

And I been everywhere at once and ain't been nowhere in a week

Hook

So I'm still. I'm still here. I'm still

Flew two thousand miles just to sit here and be still

Ain't nobody clappin'. Ain't a camera. Ain't a bill

Just the ground that made me and the time I got to till

Verse 2

Next morning, corner store. Bell above the door still broke

Kid outside, 'bout seventeen, with a phone and no coat

Said "You him." Not a question. Said "I write too. Can you hear it?"

And the whole street got quiet in a way that felt like spirit

Had it up on SoundCloud with a cover that he made himself

Forty-one plays. Thirty-nine of 'em was probably himself

And I'm thinkin' 'bout the man who told me "Email me the link"

How I sat up every night that week just waitin' on a blink

How the no ain't never come. It just ain't never come at all

And a silence is a answer. It's the coldest one of all

So I stood there in the cold and let that boy play the whole thing

Wasn't polished, wasn't finished. But I heard what he'd grow in

Then I typed my number in his phone. Ain't make a speech

He ain't even say thank you. Just stood there kind of doubtin'

Like he thought I'd take it back. And that's the part that got me

That a kid could be that used to being handed something empty

Told him "Post it anyway. Ain't gotta wait on me

You been posted on this corner — now go post it where they see"

Drove back past the cemetery. Didn't stop. Just slowed

Said his name out loud one time. Then I let the window close

And I ain't cry. And I ain't pray. And I ain't fix a thing

But I did the one small thing that somebody ain't do for me

And maybe that's the whole religion. Maybe that's the only creed

It ain't about the followers. It's about the ones you feed

Can't settle up the account. Ain't a balance I can clear

So you don't get to fix the past — you just pass it forward here

Outro

So I'm still. I'm still here. I'm still

And that boy gon' be somewhere loud one day. I can feel

And when he land back home and the town look small and real

Hope he still. Hope he still. Hope he till