Needles

Neon signs flickering against the cracked asphalt, power here isn’t given

Adjust my cap and pull my hoodie tighter against the wind, and

My Timberlands scraping the concrete, got my armor with me

Murals looming over the street, the paint’s cracking

From years of winter rain, and summer burn, even the top dogs can disappear

In this part of the world, if you stand too long in here

Scanning the shuttered Payless, see a squad, hooded, loose-limbed and jittery

Energy buzzing, they hope that they can clock me immediately

A bottle shatters against brick, violence here isn’t loud until it has to be

Footsteps too close behind you, the metallic taste of watching eyes

If you don’t bring the whole block with you then ambition is a crime at all times

Pass a street where a candlelight vigil spills onto the side

Photos stapled to a telephone pole, young faces frozen in time

See a guy gunning down outside, no one even flinches

Hear the playground gates rattling, because when it comes to tension

It doesn’t always announce itself with words, it flared in the air

 

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

It wears badges, carries radios, and calls backup when it’s nervous

Old brownstones standing shoulder-to-shoulder like weary soldiers

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

 

Inviting war, making negotiations of power, I cross the intersection

And a black and white NYPD cruiser rolls slow past me, tires hissin’

They used to yell about Bulls games and bad neighbors

Now the stoops seem deserted, I duck into the bodega on the corner

And grab a Gatorade from the fridge, nodding at the counter

Back outside I hear sirens dopplering in the distance, somewhere closer

Power is fleeting here, traded for a viral moment before you end up a mural

See a squad of scooters tearing past, engines snarling as those dudes go

Living fast because slow gets you swallowed, turn towards my house

This place uses a thousand tiny cuts to wear you down

Until you bleed out standing, I pause when I finally reach my building

Fingers resting on the iron gate, look back at the long street behind me

Sirens slicing through the air like razors, slip inside without a word

Pull my brim low, it fits me like armor now, stitched from years of fights and

Nights walking alone, better high and dry than kneep-deep inside of

Someone else’s crying shame, murals smiling wide and wise across the street

 

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

It wears badges, carries radios, and calls backup when it’s nervous

Old brownstones standing shoulder-to-shoulder like weary soldiers

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

 

Crowns tilting slightly under the blinking lights of the lamps, the city’s

Slow erosion kills legends, I pass a row of battered storefronts

Feeling eyes slicing through the air, criticism rides the skyline where I’m from

Silent and sharp, every glance I catch is a high-wire challenge

Fight or fly, lie or die, I nod at them, but tension follows after

Like a trailing kite string knotted to my spine, I see a police car

Shining under the half-dead streetlights, I watch it from afar

It rolls by slow as syrup, twin lights on top blinking, I see suspicion in their eyes

All the city’s protection does is prowl, looking for someone to fight

A dog howls a high note, I keep walking with my head high

Despite the wind biting hard, but I don’t break stride, criticism doesn’t sting

If you didn’t let it sit high in your chest, but let it roll by, like the sirens that ring

Through nights too common to cry about anymore, another life

Pinned down by bullets, the city eats its own in hungry, bright flashes

My building’s iron gate is waiting, cold and shining in the streetlight lamps, and

I touch it lightly, my fingertips brush the rust and rain, look behind me

Boulevard thrumming high and hungry, I don’t turn back or retreat

 

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

It wears badges, carries radios, and calls backup when it’s nervous

Old brownstones standing shoulder-to-shoulder like weary soldiers

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people

See the officers inside staring hard through the rolled-down windows

Feeling their gaze like needles

The tension isn’t just between the people