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