Bridging Tongues

Two tongues in one mouth,

still it comes out true

I bend with the room,

but I don't break through I'm the pale face on the block

where the rent stays late And the dark joke at the cookout

by the iron gate I know the slang on the corner,

know the schoolyard code Still I sharpen every vowel when I hit

the road

Too proper for the back row,

too rough for the lawn By the time they choose a side,

man, I'm already gone I learned how to laugh with both hands

on the wheel

Half mask, half mirror,

trying to say what is real

I change my frame,

not my name

Same fire,

different flame

If I fit nowhere at all

Why do both sides know my call White boy in the ghetto,

black sheep in the burbs Talk slick with the cadence,

still pronounce every word I wear what I lived,

I don't borrow no stripes Caught between two windows,

trying to read both lights White boy in the ghetto,

black sheep in the burbs Talk slick with the cadence,

still pronounce every word

Teachers heard a good kid,

cousins heard a bad tone Each room had a script and I

never had my own Some days I was welcomed,

some days just a guest Smile for the checkpoint,

then a hand on my chest I know how the block sounds

right after the rain And how the hedges hide a colder kind

of pain So I keep my chin level when the room gets

absurd Heart full of slang,

and I fully pronounce every word Maybe I'm a map with the

borders rubbed thin Maybe both doors were never mine to begin But

I can hold two truths and still stand firm A tongue can

stay honest while the whole world squirms White boy in the ghetto,

black sheep in the burbs Talk slick with the cadence,

still pronounce every word I wear what I lived,

I don't borrow no stripes Caught between two windows,

trying to read both lights White boy in the ghetto,

black sheep in the burbs Talk slick with the cadence,

still pronounce every word

Still pronounce every word

Still pronounce every word

I'm from where I stood

I said it how I could