Vital Signs

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Vital Signs lyrics

Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.

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Intro

Room four-fourteen, Jackson, west wing, fluorescent buzz, ice in my IV line. Six years asleep, eyes shut to the whole scene, heard every footstep, every word in between.

Verse 1

Beep, beep, the metronome of my survival, Liberty City sunrise hitting the blinds in spirals, nurse shoes squeak past, a cart of clean towels rival, bleach and Cuban coffee, Jackson Memorial revival. My wife brought a Bible the first six months, religious, then her visits got shorter, her perfume got vicious, Chanel switched to something cheaper, suspicious, the attending doc's cologne in my sheets, that ain't fictitious. The Palmetto traffic hummed through the window glass, machines kept time better than vows did, this won't pass.

Chorus

Vital signs, vital signs, she signed the consent but never signed the lines, vital signs, vital signs, I was the patient; she was the crime. The monitor never lied, her ring finger did, six years counting heartbeats, six years she hid, vital signs.

Verse 2

Year two, her laugh in the hallway with him, year three, the door cracked open, lights getting dim, year four, she stopped bringing the kids in to visit, the chart at the foot of my bed kept getting explicit. Carol City wind through a vent I couldn't close, the doctor's wedding band on the windowsill, who knows, nurses whispered in Creole, Spanish, English, all three, "That his wife? She came in with him again, can't be." Even the janitor with the mop knew the part, that the man in the white coat played a role off the chart. Hialeah security cam caught her in the stairwell, I-95 took her home; the doctor took her well.

Chorus

Vital signs, vital signs, she signed the consent but never signed the lines, vital signs, vital signs, I was the patient; she was the crime. Even the chaplain stopped praying for me, he saw the truth and walked out silently, vital signs.

Verse 3

Bed next to mine, another sleeper in the dim, Marcus, thirty-eight, Overtown, motorcycle crash to the rim, his daughter visited every Sunday, like a hymn, mine stopped at month four, the truth getting grim. We were two witnesses, our eyes sealed shut, but our ears caught every kiss, every touch, every cut.

Verse 4

Marcus opened his eyes on a Tuesday in May, six months before me, he stood up to pray. Heard the nurses gossip, watched the doc walk astray, took two weeks, then took the man's career away. Pulled the security footage, Allapattah to Brickell, photographed the parking lot, the motel they fell. Sent the package to the hospital board, certified mail, Florida Medical Quality Assurance heard the tale. By the time my eyes cracked open, the doc was banned, my wife was packing boxes in the house we used to plan, Marcus sitting in my chair with a Cuban coffee in hand, he said, "Bruh, you slept through the war; I held the land."

Chorus

Verse 5

Walking out of Jackson on a Sunday at noon, Little Haiti drumline echoing off the parking lot's tune. I owe a stranger more than I owed a wife of nine years, Marcus drove me home on the 441, swallowing tears. Tell your sons, tell your daughters, tell anybody close, the people who show up when you can't are the ones who matter most. Heart monitor told the truth her hand wouldn't, the next time I marry, gotta make sure she would.

Outro

Room four-fourteen, Jackson, west wing, I woke up free, and that's the only thing.

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