From the recording The Cardinal Passage
Lyrics
They sip the spirit in the silence, violence in the veins is vibrant
City cold, hearts colonized, caught in the streets cruel compliance
Echoes bleed through block corners, deceit weaves through the alliance
Every step, another breath, cause of loss is a lecture in defiance
Lions tigers and bears all just wanting to triumph
Candles shiver in the wind, linger like the sins we nurture
Blood maps on the asphalt, angels lost in the rupture
Know these hustlers aint religious but this could be they last supper
Concrete tombstones tattooed, wounds soaking the suture
I am too afraid of the future, some respect who got shot
Others respect the shooter
We'll protect a killer before we tolerate an abuser
Neglect the rules for a love we dont expect to use us
My innerself confused by the confliction trust is just superstition
Bullets bite without a warning, mourning dressed in repetition
Where ambition meets the coffin this game defeats us often
The oath we swore is solemn My family we ride for all em
For the names inside of the column I pick up when the reaper calling
Bodies will fall in red like dogs jump in leaves of autumn
They fire round after round til the burner get heat exhaustion
Mothers crying at the funeral knowing the dreams been auctioned
But will god accept the offering of an offspring
Who couldn't let it slide cause of his conscience
Another soul sacrificed, sanctified in the process
Survival is doctrine make the wrong promise get boxed in
Hollow tips sing psalms, choir chants through the toxins
Innocence gets forgotten the pistol gains adoption
I seen saints in their Jordans laid flat in the gutter
Ain’t no mercy in the game, it just cannibal-structures
Murals sprayed on the bricks, names tagged in the color
Concrete is the canvas, blood the pigment that adorns it
Landmarks of every homicide turning homies into florists
Bouquets replace the childhoods that the bullets made historic
Sometimes I wonder when you think of the ways we're tortured
Maybe resting in peace is a luxury we're not afforded
Ashes clash in the alley, tally souls that the shadows maraud
Life leaks in the lattice, luck lacerated and barred
Vows vanish in the vapor, virtue veiled in the vanguard
Sins spiral in the skyline, sense signs one ending can be your prologue
Final breath in the crossfire, legends living where the gods applaud