Lee Bains Iii & The Glory Fires Black & White Boys
In a fog of stolen tears and drugs, he
Smiles at the lunchroom
Shouts into that pale, fluorescent tomb
And sits with his stoned, white, shit-headed pack
He waves from his table
The fresh and clean, the black and bright
Whose laughter rolls like water despite
The teacher's white-hot gaze at their backs
We'd found syringes and snakes
In that crumbling park
Growing like vines till streetlamps sparked
Ordaining dopeboys with blazing crowns
From the backs of our parents' cars
They'd shrink into sinking streets
Lips parting as if to speak
Crickets and trains blanket the city in sound
Blanket the city in sound
God save us
Black & white boys
Eat up with the borderlines
God save us
Black & white boys
Washed out in stoic Southern sunshine
Blue in the glow, thumbs thrumming in the fight
He sighs, “I want to be white.”
I hit reset, and volunteer to be green
Static reflecting off his eyes, he lays his finger
On my arm. “White,” he whispers
Words warp. I stare into the screen
Words warp. I stare into the screen
Words warp. I stare into the screen
God save us
Black & white boys
Taught to walk the borderlines
God save us
Black & white boys
Washed out in stoic Southern sunshine
The Lord's mercy, swears Demarcus
Falls like rain on old boys like us
Hard-headed, soft-hearted, wild as hell
May the Lord judge the county that
Sent me to get clean
And sent D to turn fifteen
Staring through the walls of a Mt. Meigs cell
God save us
Black & white boys
Eat up with the borderlines
God save us
Black & white boys
Drowning in the stoic Southern sunshine
God save us
White boys from
Crouching behind what we didn't earn
God save us
Black & white boys
And show us what to smash and burn