Grew up in a house with busted windows

Mama prayed

But the devil took notes

Hand-me-down shoes

Pockets full of trouble

Cold nights

Warm bottle in my coat

Slept in my truck by that old mill road

Counting change

Chasing off the cold

Belly talking louder than the radio

Ain’t nobody there when the nights get old

I ain’t had no silver spoon

Just a hard life

Hard time

Dark rooms

You can keep your gas card

College bedroom

I paid my dues on a concrete tomb

Don’t you dare say we the same kind of blues

I bled for every mile I moved

Best friend sat in that witness stand

Swore to God

Then he raised his hand

Twenty-five years on a judge’s tongue

Steel door slammed

I was dead while young

Watched my daddy fade through a dirty screen

Nurse with the mask

Bright hospital beams

Couldn’t hold his hand when they called his name

Just a cracked old phone and a heart in chains

You had warm plates

Full tanks

Clean sheets

I had cold floors

Hot hell

Chain links

You got bailed out when you slipped and fell

I got boxed in

Locked down

Broke in that cell