I reach beneath the skin of the street with each step   Walkin' closer to my final destination of death   When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath   The Northwest fills the lungs, heals the pain in my chest      Take six quarters out of the pocket   Drop it in the box   Hop the 48, off to pay homage   It stops often, I jot my observations, watchin'   Citizens walkin' off of the Joe Metropolitan   Proletariats and wayward sons   With old Filipino men speakin' in they native tongue   And the day is just begun   Greeted by the scent of a bum   Smelling something like beer, barf, and dung   A brother in repose in the back all alone   Marinatin' in a pair of half-broken headphones   Muddled in rhymes   Same time begin to pen mine   Appreciating God's design   Rewind sister   Reminds me of a smile in the back of my memory   Wonder if I'll see her again   Will she remember me?   "I'm not tryin' to holler, I swear. I'm just weary of the way we hop a ride   And just sit there and stare."   Prepare for my nine o' clock work meeting   A couple pale folks slide right by with no greeting   But the people with my phenotype follow with a head-nod up   Because we acknowledge that the shit's fucked up      North of Martin Luther King: a straight warzone   Detours through the concrete, cranes, and bulldozers   No, the Hill is not over still   Every block got a coffee shop; it's overkill   Focus, know the deal   Dope to see Kalil back, the medicine is good again   The feeling: illegal, and coming back to your hood again   It's priceless, I write this, our lives are in crisis   Most talk, but don't walk, the path of the righteous   Despite this...   I measure each step, walkin' closer to my final destination of death   When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath   The Northwest fills my lungs, heals the pain in my chest   Clutch the moment, a transfer in my hand   Still listening   Lookin' out the window to the gold and the gray   And the sun might be shinin' but it's colder than it seems   'Cause the weather's dialectical: there's no in-between      In walks an old soul   A First Nation native, cat's chiseled like a totem pole   No words, as he stands and looks over us   He gets off and says, "Have a good day, you foreigners."   I, crack a smile one time for the acknowledgement   Northbound, now we start to pick up more college kids   They try to study on the ride   To make up for the fact that they probably kicked it hard last night   And I ponder if it's time to save up and get a car   And pay for the gas that we're takin' from the war   I'd miss all the colorful faces, the places, and spaces I've embraced with   The faith that I can rest and raise kids here even with these cats set   Trippin'   Bringin' '95 back again, same old conditions   From Reagan, to Bush, to Clinton, to the Bush the 2nd   No matter the neighborhood in the city you're reppin'   It's gettin' serious y'all   You can even hear the rebel call   Gettin' off, leavin' hella pieces on the walls   Seen it all, sittin' sideways with my townmates   Only place left where majority is brown-faced      Now we headed downtown to trade our labor for cash   I thank the navigator once and walk fast   I walk past the next round of cats to jump on it   Locked in deep thought, we ride around in silence   And cross Rizal Bridge   I watch each step, walkin' closer to my final destination of death   When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath   The Northwest fills the lungs, heals the pain in my chest   I remain blessed, steppin' on rain with each step   Eyes heavy from the lack of the cousin of death   When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath   The Northwest fills the lungs y'all, you know the rest...