A Lasting Place

Uh
(Da, da, da, da-da-da)
Uh
Trouble in the one-six
Yeah, trouble in the one-six-nine, uh
(Da, da, da, da-da-da)

Yeah, saying they don't want this (uh)
Uh, saying they don't want this life
(Da, da, da, da-da-da)
Said
Trouble in the one-six
Yeah, trouble in the one-six-nine
(Da, da, da, da-da-da)

Yeah, saying they don't want this
Come across this
Check
Life

Uh, she see my father in me
That's why she argue with me
That's why they can't forgive me
Uh, rock and a hard place
Wearing a hard face
Close the door, leave my house like I'm Scarface
Yeah, sweet success that I can't taste
Heard the bang, still finishing the last race

Lapping me, a year ago, yo, they was clapping me
Nobody told me that I'd lose it so rapidly
I thought this was the kind of thing that goes gradually
My hair line, the good guys I was glad to be
Grim Reaper's catching me, yeah
Yeah, it's like I work for him
I'm being punished for the times that I would sin
When I tried to do right, still I did the wrong thing
Yo, I thought I was a king

Yeah, yeah
(Uh, trouble in the one six)
Yeah, trouble in the one-six-nine
(Trouble in the one-six-nine, one-six-nine)
Yeah, saying I don't want this life
(Yeah, saying I don't) yeah, yeah
(Yeah, saying I don't want this) (da, da, da, da-da-da)
Yeah, saying I don't want this (say, uh)
(Uh, say) saying they don't want this life

What kind of man weeps at the feet of his wife in pain?
Holds up the pink and shrieking thing and feels the throb of time
What kind of man wraps a cloth around his waist?
And holds the baby to his chest
Walks through the streets swaying like a drunk in the morning
What kind of man feels the rage of men?
And only swallows at his daughter's fists

What kind of man bends to hold them in their suffering?
In their questions, in their garbled turns of phrase
What kind of man admits his failures?
Turns over his heavy stones
Stands at the feet of grief and wanting and does not turn away
What kind of man becomes a father, a lasting place?

So how am I supposed to sum it up?
Listen, this is what the summer does
And I ain't losing any one of us, a mother's love
Yeah, mother's love
I know it isn't what it is, I wished it was
The love is great
Yeah, to raise the man that you hate
Growing in the man that you make

Uh, knowing if you plan your escape
Then the next man's handed his fate
They say that time waits for no man, uh (da, da, da, da-da-da)
At least it didn't for my old man
Me and the Devil used to hold hands
A slow dance through the city, through that cold sand
I'm here, all fucking week and ain't got no plans
Was staring back at the reflections of a grown man (da, da, da, da-da-da)

Staring back at the reflections of a grown man
But I don't want to be an old man