Inserts instrumental… To Lady In My Life” by MJ & Quincy Jones

begans a freestyle on top of the mail… and voices that sounded like the wrong tings

Yeah, because all the fitted caps and stylish threads,
Couldn’t patch the thoughts still stuck in my head.
Lonely bus rides, cross town with a stare,
Watchin’ strangers claim they know me, but never was there.

Merch tables echo with dreams in the sky,
Liquor on the shelf where the hopes go to die.
Over and over, that spark through the wire,
Outlet hums low like a voice with no choir.

Every product, every label, they try to sell truth,
But the stutter in his speech was the sound of his youth.
Mental loops, silent screams, trapped in the aisles,
Where the barcode’s priced higher than genuine smiles.

He told me ’bout the bear and tissue —
That’s code for strength and soft when the world won’t miss you.
Another brand name on a shelf of regrets,
While I clean up the pain that my mind won’t forget.

They searched for a queen in the shadows and mess,
While I scrubbed away trauma, just tryin’ to rest.
More and more, I clean just to not feel the sting,
Of memories dirtier than anything bleach could bring.

Variations of Pretty Girls stood on street corners,
White tee, red letters—COVID like a warner,
Sign in her hand, voice low but warmer,
“Spare some change?” in a world getting colder.

He gave her pain wrapped in truth, now she’s the proof,
Broke hearts, broke pockets, still act aloof.
Pandemic prayers turned to permanent blues,
And the system just watched like it’s old news.

No mask for the trauma, no vax for the shame,
She got nothing but her story and a whisper of his name.
Same sidewalk, same ghosts, still playing that game—
She held the sign, but they the ones to blame.