Map In My Chest

[Intro]
Trumpet in the air
Sax cuttin’ through the dust
Violin on the prayer
Harmonica on the rust

[Verse 1]
Started with a scribble on a school desk
Name in the margin, mind full of unrest
Bus rides, cheap pens, little spiral pad
Turned every boring minute to a launching pad
One dot
First job, late clock, all grind
Second dot
Heartbreak, dark days, rewired my mind
Every scar, every shift, every side quest
Became a map in my chest I ain’t read yet

[Chorus]
I’m just connectin’ all the dots in my life (yeah)
From the hurt to the hope to the highs
Every line that I draw, that’s mine
Turn the mess to a design, watch it shine
I’m just connectin’ all the dots in my life
Let the past, let the present align
When it hits, when it clicks, that sign
I see the picture in my mind, in my mind

[Verse 2]
Mama in the kitchen hummin’, distant train cry
Harmonica on the porch, blues in the sky
That’s a dot
Cousin in a cell, cold metal, one call
That’s a dot
Promise to myself I won’t stall
Old shoes, long walks, late rain on my face
Turned every lonely mile to a sacred place
Violin over vinyl, string over drum
Taught me pain and the rhythm beat the same thrum

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
[low vocal register]
You got dots in the dark, dots in the glow
Dots from the nights you were too low to show
Dots from the wins they said you’d never own
Dots from the days you felt fully alone
[call-and-response gang vocals]
Hold ‘em up (hold ‘em up)
Mark ‘em down (mark ‘em down)
Let the line run wild through your whole hometown
Trumpet like a flare in the cold night air
Sax talk slick sayin’ “you’re still there”
Violin cries, then it cuts through clean
Harmonica bends, turns the grief serene

[Chorus]