Screen Door Protocol

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Screen Door Protocol 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

Notice curled at the corner like it already smelled the rain coming…

Verse 1

The notice hit the screen door crooked, ink bleeding where humidity kissed it twice Three hundred more they stamped, company don’t know Auntie been holding since ’98 Grandma Bible on the shelf, deed tucked between pages thin as the last patience in the house They see higher ground by the Turnpike, dollar signs moving in like they got birthright papers Bus from the job site coughing at the light, A/C wheezing like the whole system tired of carrying folk who look like us Sweat rolling before my feet hit the concrete, another day breaking my back for money that folds smaller every rent week Ty posted on the corner with cats whose eyes don’t reach their smiles, same tired walk my daddy had before the system folded him I know that corner too well… sixteen-year-old me used to start problems just to make the quiet in my chest shut up for a minute

Chorus

Screen door protocol… We knock two houses down when the notice curls on the screen Not the corner math that turns names into numbers on a list Screen door protocol… The hand that brings the plate when the grill runnin’ low on chicken and breath Protection ain’t the piece you tuck when the system come for the door It’s the exhale we share when the block decide it still got room for one more

Verse 2

Court date next month hanging like the humidity don’t ever lift Old traffic mess the system refuse to let die, they need bodies in them seats Money from breaking my back never stretch far enough for the rent week pressure Shawn caught a stray on 441, police wrote it up with his name spelled wrong like the cost didn’t even deserve correct spelling I went looking for justice with my own hands back then, all it made was more court dates and Shawn mama still on that porch every Sunday, eyes empty as the lot where his name used to park Now twenty-eight, back in the same zip, trying to stay right while the block shift under our feet New builds at the end of the street, whispers of revitalization sounding like “your people don’t belong here no more” Aunties tired, old heads inside with fans on high, jits restless and corner getting louder every night

Chorus

Verse 3

One evening after the storm rolled through, pavement still hissing like it was trying to forget the thunder Watched Ty get pulled into something that wasn’t his fight, outside cats pressing on the younger ones by the bus stop Auntie came out hollering but her voice cracked on the last syllable, fear had settled in like the humidity Old voice in my head said grab what you need and handle it, protect the block the only way the streets ever taught But then I heard Grandma clear as day, same spot she used to sit right here on this porch…

Bridge

I stood on the porch… chest tight… The troublemaker in me still wanted to be the one they feared The vigilante still wanted to cross the line and call it the only language they understand But the part of me that buried Shawn’s mama’s eyes every Sunday almost won Until the screen door creaked open behind me like it was choosing too…

Chorus

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01 / The opening