Before

I don't know what I’m doing

I just play

I play chords like a church song

That scale I was raised on

And the memories hurt some

I can't shake it it's in me still

All of the pride and shame instilled

Accents, I was raised to feel

True meaning when our words just fail

I know we are scarred and the love is real

My Amharic’s not what it used to be

Get excited when a few words come to me

It's like playing these black keys

I can't call the notes, but it's therapy

We long to connect I guess, even when home is a wreck

And stretched across continents, we left and left

I'm always leaving, but dreaming to stay

All of these relics and keepsakes

Adorn our necks like lost faith

Of crosses that we don't pray to

Just to celebrate what made you

Cry out loud, let the rain heal

For a home that isn't so pain-filled

What we can't see but we may build

Dreams get made like they’re make-believe

Make-believe

And I may conceive a world in my mind that I may achieve

I may achieve

What I reach up for as I’m falling down

Down, falling down

Though my closest friends, they are still around

Around my way it's the same, I guess

Homeless hunting for cigarettes

Kids on the court trying to see who’s best

Arms raised up, we don't know who's next

We don't know who’s next

Please help us live

And if you choose to give a damn

I will show you who I am

Just to show you who I am

So these days I get up early

Stroll from Yonge to Berkeley

Hold my chest from the biting cold

Every moment it writes our souls

And we don't know the path

But it's our path to stray

I might go, I have to say

Just how much a laugh can say

A laugh can say