Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.)

When the black and whites arrive
 I am lifeless on the floor
 Crumpled dollars in my hand
 In my hand, in my hand
 The lady in the fishing vest
 Has dropped the gun
 Who wears a fishing vest
 When they're working at a liquor store?
 I float up to the corner
 Just above the ice cream
 And the frozen food
 I perch beside the surveillance camera
 ♪
 Only days after the trial
 You could feel the tension rise
 In the street and in the rhythm
 Of despair, of despair
 It was war after a while
 In each neighbor's tired eyes
 There was nothing to persuade them
 To stand down, to stand down
 I float higher and higher
 Friendly with the clouds
 That cover Southland
 ♪
 I watch the tender skyline dancing
 Oh, the terror
 On the long night
 On the long fight
 Blood, glass, burnt hair
 These angry armies quick advancing
 In position
 On the rooftops, in the culverts
 Stores are sacked while no one's there
 Now two kinds of light from fires and fixtures
 They fill the sky
 It was never so bright when I was young
 I was too young to die
 On TV sets, in houses effortlessly done
 In fancy colors
 All the righteous, all the newsmen
 Speak of end times
 Why should they give a fuck
 Some angry little black girl took a bullet?
 Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy
 On the ones who've done the crimes
 Now two kinds of light from fires and fixtures
 They fill the sky
 It was never so bright when I was young
 I was too young to die
 ♪
 If I float even higher
 Pattern and procession are uncovered
 Flood and fire, flood and earthquake
 Keep folks unmoored
 And the occasional celebrity car chase
 Woo, woo, woo, woo!
 Just to keep God, just to keep God
 From getting bored, from getting bored
 Now two kinds of light from fires and fixtures
 They fill the sky
 It was never so bright when I was young
 I was too young to die
 ♪
 When my Grandma was a young woman
 East St. Louis
 She thought the town was no good to us
 She took a Greyhound
 Just as far as it could take her
 Felt her maker in the waves
 You know, how God moves through us
 ♪
 I was six years old when we followed
 My mother was twenty two
 The light was magic
 The light was true
 She thought we'd moved
 Beyond a sharecropper's debt
 But we were just a pawn
 In the accuser's bet
 Nobody reads from the Book of Job
 At the church where me and my grandma go
 Nobody sees the trouble, I know
 But I know that trouble's gonna find me
 ♪
 Three years later on the Thanksgiving
 The light turned bitter
 My grandmother didn't know what hit her
 We got a chill from the cold white sun
 Momma found herself staring
 At the barrel of a gun
 That weren't enough, my uncle died too
 Shot through the chest back in East St. Louis
 So one fine day my grandma lost two
 Took me in her arms and said, it's just me and you
 ♪
 Nobody reads from the Book of Job
 At the church where me and my grandma go
 Nobody sees the trouble, I know
 But I know that trouble's gonna find me
 Nobody reads from the Book of Job
 At the church where me and my grandma go
 Nobody sees the trouble, I know
 But I know that trouble's gonna find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 It will find me
 So when I say that my untimely death
 Was something certain
 What I mean is that these tragedies
 Are a kind of family tradition
 So when I walk into the liquor store that morning
 Bright and angry
 In a daydream of a boyfriend
 I was fifteen
 Pick up a bottle of orange juice
 And put it into my backpack
 Head toward the counter with dollar bills
 And she accuse me of stealing that
 She pull my sweater
 And so I hit her
 Put down the bottle
 Don't want no trouble
 Now two kinds of light from fires and fixtures
 They fill the sky
 It was never so bright when I was young
 I was too young to die
 Now two kinds of light from fires and fixtures
 They fill the sky
 It was never so bright when I was young
 I was too young to die
 ♪
 I suppose it's no surprise
 To find myself about to die
 But how long that silver moment
 From the bullet to the floor
 
 That right there was a lifetime
 La da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da