Tight Rope - Brother Ali

Frigid frozen Minnesota

Chip on his shoulder

Sick sleeping on a pissy sofa

Unwanted visitor in a different culture

Missing home and he can’t go they’re civil warring

Listen solider forget getting over

Prison’s sitting 'round the corner, homeless is even closer

Kids with similar skin color still don’t wantcha

Spit and insult ya cause they’ve been here longer

He leave his crib he guaranteed the pigs approach ya

Where ya going where ya from any weapons on ya?

Your family is stressed out you’re getting older

You don’t live the way they did back in Somalia

Its extra difficult to be a daughter

Trying to keep it modest with sinners all around you

Where the wrong garment your parents get an ulcer

If you wrap it up the other children picking on you

Live in two worlds with your eyes closed

Tip toeing on a tight rope

Holding on for survival

Nobody to blame this is just how it goes

Live in two worlds with your eyes closed

Tip toeing on a tight rope

Holding on for survival

Nobody to blame this is just how it goes

Holidays and you know what the business is

You get two birthdays and two Christmases

Older you get you resent how sick it is

They’re trying to cover their guilt with the gifts they give

Bounce from his house to her house

Too bad that marriage didn’t work out

Now you don’t have a your house

Daddy fighting mommy they both tell me they love me

If I get to close to one the other one start acting funny

Ma went and had a baby with a different dad

You act happy to please em but you are really sad

Seeing first hand that family that you will never have

Plus you ain’t no real brother, you’re just a half

Got to pick up the pieces and move on

Bed time stories and greet them on the phone

Live in two houses and neither one is home

Wishing you were grown have the freedom to get gone

Live in two worlds with your eyes closed

Tip toeing on a tight rope

Holding on for survival

Nobody to blame this is just how it goes

Live in two worlds with your eyes closed

Tip toeing on a tight rope

Holding on for survival

Nobody to blame this is just how it goes

Daddy was a preacher, momma was a Sunday school teacher

Big brother, football squad leader

Now far be it for you to disappoint or displease them

Your just being what you feel you see in

That mirror every time you peer in

Swallow the tears inside that empty feeling

A boy terrified to let the world in

He has girlfriends but doesn’t want a girlfriend

He retreats inside himself

Where he lives life itself in secret

Daddy says people go to hell for being

What he is and he certainly believes him

Cause there ain’t no flame that can blaze enough

To trump being hated for the way you love

And cry yourself to sleep and hate waking up

Its a cold world y’all shame on us

Live in two worlds with your eyes closed

Tip toeing on a tight rope

Holding on for survival

Nobody to blame this is just how it goes

Live in two worlds with your eyes closed

Tip toeing on a tight rope

Holding on for survival

Nobody to blame this is just how it goes