Lake Effect

It's truly a blessing...

With all this stuff that's going on in this city.

All this is great, but...

I can't explain...

We ain't supposed to be here

Oh, Chicago you

Oh, Chicago you

Pray for me, I pray for you

Oh, pray for me, I pray for you

That's word to dirty banshees and rock-blowers and blow the cops

Not supposed to notice like Lower Wacker, below the docks

With tears run the mazes and numb faces

And fears comes and goes, stung the stages in the front pages

And tippy-toe the slushy street where the drunk sleeps

The Red Line; Stuck in Vietnam and the bum screeches

Of rusty beaches, and deep water, and one-eyed pigeons

A fight for chicken bones amidst the sunshine thinning

Everybody got their punchlines grinnin', she know a thousand good poems

The CHA don't leave her housing alone

Bulgin' shoulders [?] to know folks'll pull the shades on the roses

Turn the Down for they code, and bang on polygons for the half-brim

Earth steady stagnant and heavy habits, the backspin

Summer's swamp, shady's confetti, cabbage, and aspirin

When the Rev' get the cheddy fast to pay for their last sin

Baby hungry, momma thirsty

But let me hold somethin', dog, I got you Thursday

Vultures serve over roaches, swerve crumbs

Commotion as the folks turn numb

Heaven's a million miles from the ill

It's hard to see the stars with a mouth full of pills

Heaven's a million miles from the go

It's hard to see the sky with a nose up in the snow

Heaven's a million miles from the Chi'

It's hard to see the sky with the smoke up in the eye

Heaven's a million miles from Chicago

Only see the stars when she's tippin' back a bottle

Crowd 'em in the block and then rip it down in Chicago

Cook county lock-up or block-up, blocka shouting tomorrow

It's different

We got our own Olympics, the first of twenty get gold

The four for forty, two for twenty get Walkin' block, beholdin' old-ass shorties that got that blow bag

And hold that forty,, slow as warnings

That know nine hundred ninety good poems, it's all lost

Nobody trying to get home and that's effed up

Miracle Mile just like a diamond that blisters the pride

Of 5's and 6's dying to the time of the twister

But get that lit up, swirl that pot on the burner

Follow fixture, while the sister make The violent they turn 'em, no conviction

Can't deter 'em, addiction'll earn his mother food

Cause ain't no cages turn no jungles to zoos

The "Lake Effect", when some are numbin' the youth

Neutral martyrs, take your heart and fill your lungs with the blues

Nothing new up in the zoo, just holding moldy picture

But killing children, spilling it from Holy Scripture

My windy city calling out my favorite, she whispers

But watch that brim in the winter

She hate it

She knows eight hundred eighty good poems

Ain't nothing changed since Mayor Daley been thrown or Robert Taylor

Plus the Cabrini is gone, Ida B. Wells, and Henry Horner, and the Ickes is gone

The Stateway, working The list goes on, she can't afford a crib, she get those They gon' flip those phones, and tip those blows

And, forgot the stars, grown cold

Heaven's a million miles from Chicago

Only sees the stars when she's tippin' back a bottle

Heaven's a million miles from Chicago

Only sees the stars when she's tippin' back a bottle