Last One Off

Bus can stop but I'm the last one off

Full refund, full refund

I'm the clock and I say clock out

Pay the band, put the money in my hand

So who's in the corn? Don't ask me, I drive

Any percent, I'll take it any way it comes

Kimchi slap, still the face of the show

Hung jury, and I'm hangin' low

Come in, spinner, you been had

Fresh sheet, clean slate, lay it down

Dance with the skeleton crew

Hundred percent chance of me

Come on down, I'll square you up

Don't stop the kick or they come for us

Deal me in, I ain't gettin' up

I'll mop the floor with you

I don't need a mic to be heard

I will keep the light till you are home

Dig him out, he's still one of us

Ring it loud, let the whole ward hear

I'll find you in the crowd

Open wide, this won't hurt a bit

Red card, you're a real card, now sit down

Kill the power, we still got juice

Chal, ghodi, chal, make that horse move

Check yourself at the door

I'm under your skin now

Over easy, nothing's easy

Watch me turn the tables

I came to cash my rain check

Thirty floors and I'm still going down

Clear the way, the bowl is comin' through

Can you feel the pull

Meet me in the margin

We take the fall together

Follow me this way home

Strike it while it's hot

Windows up, but the whole block heard you

Woke up with the dirt in my hands again

Turn it faster, see if you can catch me

Hold that towel, I can see with the other one

Sit down, stay, he won't go home without you

Took my hands out my pockets for the hill

Dance on it before it dries

Can't catch her, she don't even know I'm chasing

Down past the bones, there's water in the stone

Trip on my words but I never miss a note

Floor's all yours, cher, show me what you learned

Put your shoulder on it, the road ain't done

Talk all that feel, can't even find the two

Smile for the next one, it's closer than the last

Down where the steeple sleeps, keep them under

Bid it up for the kid, let the whole barn hear

Heels in the sand, let go on three

Throw the cane, the old man ain't done

Off route tonight, the city can wait

Out on the wing with nothing to hold

Beat the hail to the last row

Cup of coffee in the big leagues, drank it to the grounds

Finish one song, then talk to me

Hit me again, I still make pickup at three

Hot tray, hold your head up, step on through

Don't slow down, I'm right beside you

Chase me down and spend it all

Leave the shoe where it landed, keep it moving

Who no spray, the drum go talk

Heard, chef, fire it, plate it, send it out

Pop the trunk and reach in deep

Slam it down, six love, crawl under the table

Keep the stroke, the shore won't row to me

Cleats off at the curb, we play it barefoot here

Cut me in, you been eating off my name

Captain, step back, I got the con

Tacos are free, but the salsa's extra

Come around my bad side, that's my good side

Call me counselor, my bars got me past the bar

Look for the backwards brick, that one's mine

Boo me, kid, make the whole gym hear it

Thumb out on forty-one, and you know my face

Siren's going, take it downstairs

Clock out with me, the whistle's on our side

Couples only, lace 'em up, it's us again

Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame

I'm your most played, the phone don't lie

Then do it, if it's so easy, here's the room

You gave me two minutes, I brought your words

I learned it from a phrasebook, one page a day

Twelve lawns on the block and every one is mine

Hold the ridge until the morning comes

Five gallon bucket and a pair of sticks

Aisle thirteen, slot nine, pick one

Can't miss me, I'm the gold on the hill

Floor it, Darla, hold on tight

I wrote it in big letters in the field below

Spin me till six and don't let go

Who Made You: the man who calls my music unearned had his whole career bought by his father, so I ask him who made you.

Tell It Right: every Halloween I tell the fire story wrong, and this year a boy nobody brought corrects every line until he tells the ending himself.

Party in the Back: I grew the loudest mullet on the block, business in the front, party in the back, until she rolled up with a bigger one.

Leave It In: every engineer says cut the laugh at the top of the track, but that laugh is Marcus and it stays.

Open Anyway: the quake took the market street, and we opened on the rubble anyway.

Drop Date: the man who says my songs have no soul has announced his album for eight years, and the only thing he ever drops is a new date.

Party of Two: a year after he let a lost boy call at his door all night, every bar and doorway on Halloween treats him as two.

Now I See You: the block called him Mean Marcus for twenty-nine years, and the day he gets glasses they find out he just couldn't see.

Make Room: Miss Odette took nineteen kids into a two-bedroom and slept on the couch, and the world that said no room has to make some.

Stand clear of the closing doors

I know what you threw away

Nobody leaves until I call it

It's comin' to me

I'll give you a head start

If he waves, don't wave back

Everybody out, leave it all inside

Let me spell it out for you

This one's my shout

Go ahead and call it in

Dress for the job you want

You can't cut what's already playing

I keep the time

Go on, let her go

Bring it here, I'll make it cry

I had you first

Cover Band: the man who says my songs ain't real has sung other people's songs for eleven years, and Friday the crowd made him sing mine.

Housewarming: the new family on Larkin Lane gets a casserole, two questions and, on Halloween, a whole town with torches.

Salt Line: the corner lady pours salt across her steps every Halloween, and the night a kid kicks a gap in it, he finds out what it was holding in.

Front of the Check: the loan man who turned her away now signs the back of her paycheck every Friday.

Thirty-One: the first man in his line to live past thirty wakes up and sings for every one who didn't.

We Lose Loud: the loudest fans in the league back a team that never wins, so when it finally does, they boo.

Still Run With You: he still runs the five a.m. route he ran with his late best friend, and he still keeps the left side open.

Didn't See Nothing: every time he tells the detective he saw nothing, he names another detail.

Quiet Money: the flashy guy clowns the man in the plain gray hoodie every morning, then knocks on his door on the first to ask about the rent.

Cul-de-Sac: he brings the whole block to his quiet new street, and the neighbor who came to shut it down ends up running the dominoes table.

Nobody caught him: the hater who says real music belongs to the people stage-dives into my crowd, and the people step back.

Nose don't lie: on a Halloween search for a missing girl, the old bloodhound keeps tracking the man leading the search.

Heavy metal: two kids race a cast-iron bathtub down Devil's Hill, everyone laughs at the weight, and the weight wins.

Knows the steps: his wife no longer knows his name, but at the Friday dance she leads every step and says he dances like her husband.

The back way: the kid who sneaks out every night is the only one who knows the way down the fire escape when the main stairs fill with smoke.

Took the roof off: four hundred people in a hurricane shelter beat the bleachers so loud they never hear the roof go.

Picked last: the kid picked last since third grade wins the teachers-versus-seniors dodgeball game by catching, and every catch lets him pick a classmate back in.

Bump into you: he spends forty tickets ramming the girl in the red car, then finds out she bought forty too.

Shorts weather: the first warm Saturday after a five-month winter brings the whole block out in shorts, and it's only fifty-one degrees.

Pull the plug: a church-kid Afro-rock band gets shut down at the battle of the bands for being too loud, and losing makes them legends.

Fifth floor: two cousins haul an upright piano up five flights for forty dollars, and at the top Aunt Lorraine says it goes to the basement.

Let it ring: the man preaching against my songs at the open mic has my hook as his ringtone, and it goes off mid-speech.

Jump in: the leaf pile on Linden spits every kid back out and keeps every grown-up who came to yell at them.

Locker nine: two strangers on opposite shifts share one locker and a war of notes, and by spring the tape on the door has one last name.

Heel and toe: the tap dancer on the subway platform out-hits the breakdance crew until the trains stop leaving, with no taps on his shoes.

Lady G: the voice he chopped into every beat since fifteen was his mother's all along, and she sings it back at her seventieth.

Spotless: the man the whole city calls after never asks what happened, and the precinct has his number too.

Last beam: the steel crew raises the last beam with all their names on it, and it goes up inside the wall where it stands for good.

Back it in: the best parallel parker on the block takes the gap nobody wants in one move, then backs a moving truck into it.

Never swung: the smallest fighter in the valley beats the biggest man in the hills by blocking every blow until his arms give out.

Keep the receipt: she proposed first and kept the pawnshop receipt to threaten him for twenty years, and it says final sale.

Back of the hand: the undefeated arm wrestler has won three hundred times with his weak hand, and switches when somebody finally pushes him.

Picket: he hates the sound so much he shows up to every single show to picket it, and now his sign sells the tour.

Oxen free: he calls the old all-clear into the hedges for the kid who was never found, and finding him means he is it.

Somebody's seat: the stool nobody sits in belongs to whoever sits in it last, and it keeps him.

Bushel: she picks a bushel of crabs clean faster than the man who owns the crab house, and the bet was the building.

Same stage: the man who left school at sixteen crosses at forty-one, and his son is right behind him.

Cut it close: the cheap mower with the full grass bag cuts every corner closer than the turbo rig and takes the flag.

Who let him in: the narc in the cardigan at the front of the pit is the man who started the band.

Hand signals: the traffic man dances the worst jam in Luanda through his roundabout, and even the president's guards end up dancing.

Second lap: he eats free every Saturday off the sample tables, and the sample lady hands him the apron.

Sunday at seven: eleven years at the last payphone for his brother's call, and after his brother is gone, a kid calls instead.

Elevator music: the man who sneered at it rode it three hours stuck between floors and came out toasting every bar.

Woodpile: a dead man's saw runs every October night, his stack keeps growing, and the newest log has your name on it.

Strikes thirteen: the courthouse clock takes somebody once a year, and the loudmouth who laughs after thirteen hears fourteen.

Wrong purse: he snatched it at the bus stop, she ran him down barefoot for eight blocks, and he carried her groceries home.

Scare it out of me: every hiccup cure failed until he saw his ex in the second row.

Skeeter: the little man they swatted for twenty years lent a little to everybody, and now the whole block itches.

Hang on back there: the fastest bike on the hill hauls a stranger to the stadium in eighteen minutes, and he is the referee.

Six o'clock news: forty seconds of fame for saving a cat, two summers of acting famous, and then the cat gets the follow-up.

No rush, I'll see you sooner or later

Everything comes back to me

Go on and cry wolf

Everybody blew away but me

Mi come from behind di zinc fence

I bring the whole show in the back

I wrote the rules you're breakin'

Be careful what you eat for

I'm still above the waterline

They locked me out, so I lock it out

Send it long and bring it home

Somebody's gotta bring the lantern home

I carry everybody's bags but mine

Read the liner notes: the man who hates the music wrote more words about it than anyone alive, so she prints them.

One story: a one-story house with footsteps overhead, and the only story he has left is still coming down.

Keep them in: the babysitter learns the note was never about keeping danger out.

Heaviest thing I own: nobody had a second to spare him until a neighbor handed him the key to her house.

Ten summers dry: the whole block is in it, the pool and the fight, and they filled it themselves.

Fade: nobody cuts a fade like Milo, and now Junior is the one trying not to fade.

Tags on: the cleanest man at the wedding is the one who has to bring the suit back Wednesday.

Give them a quarter inch and they'll take a mile, until he becomes the one with the ruler.

Ask around: he never has to say it, because every name on the block has a favor and paid it.

Bad influence: the worst thing she ever did to him was get him home by ten and paying bills early.

Everything's closed, but they are wide open: a snow day where nobody works and nobody is sorry.

Tall order: bigger than the room, and the room can feel it, no matter how tall he really is.

Now you in the pickup line

I spoke so high of you they flew you out

I do the limit and they still can't catch me

Can't steal what you can't drive

Show me your face for the last song

Squeeze in, it have room

That's my voice comin' out of your mouth

I don't need your stamp on me

Somebody's livin' my life better than me

Ain't no wire between me and you

I say it with my hands

Roll the last reel, I know how it ends

Some of us take the long way up

I built a house I never slept in

Same corner, different sign

How low can you go: the hater who says the bar is low has to hold the limbo pole, and every insult makes the dance harder for him, not me.

Open season: on Halloween night the hunter blowing the call finds out the season is open on him.

Burn slow: the wick has to burn without help, because every match he strikes to save it tells the dark where he lives.

Four hundred square feet: the smallest room he has ever had is the first one nobody can put him out of.

Put the beat on and I'm fluent: the kid who jams on every word speaks clean over a beat, and by the end he does not need the beat.

Hand-me-down: you cannot fill a coat like that, you have to grow into the man, and the patches show the old man was carrying the son the whole time.

In person only: the only way out of the gym is to keep showing up, and showing up is the whole workout.

Allen key: he does not need directions, and the bed he took the screws from proves exactly why he does.

Off the clock: the most dangerous man at the party is only there to make a balloon dog, and he still does it like a professional.

Long memory: the man who writes everybody down and reads them their line finds the longest line in the book is his own.

Heat check: the man calling for the shot that proves he is hot finds out who is really on fire.

Expunged: the record is wiped clean, and the first thing the clean slate brings is a jury summons he treats like a trophy.

Count the crows, that's a murder

You never saw my face, you just handed me the keys

You don't know who's in the suit

I been breaking since before you were born

Race you for the pink slip, loser rides in the back

Watch my hands, not his

I'm going up the down side

They say it never strikes the same place twice

I paid to let you go just to bring you back

Your side's still warm when I get in

I got lighter than the things that held me down

Every flight I climb, I carry two

Burn it bright on the way down

Hold the rope and I'll be your eyes

Patient Zero: the hater with zero patience for the music is the one who spread it to the whole block.

Extra Kid: five kids on the route, a sixth in a bedsheet, and the sheet wants to be counted.

Unplugged: twelve figures on the cord, and the thirteenth keeps moving with nothing plugged in.

Streetlights at Noon: don't give her a sliver, give her the whole black sun and the streetlights on at noon.

Larger Than Life: he paints the block forty feet tall because life kept them small, and they were always this big.

Leave a Message: he keeps paying for his late father's number just to hear the greeting, and hangs up at the beep.

Every Inbox: he meant to rant to one friend and hit reply all, and the whole building heard it.

Hold the Door: too polite to let it go, he holds it for a stranger forty feet away.

Void Where Prohibited: he is the part at the bottom nobody reads, and that is the part that's real.

Excuse Me: he apologizes first for what he is about to do, and then there is no excuse for anyone.

Says Who: every brag at the door gets two words back, and the woman asking owns the house.

Potluck: the luck of the pot is fourteen bowls of the same dish, and it never gets old.

Flat Earth: the man who calls the record flat also thinks the world is flat, and he is wrong on both counts.

Yes or No: a talking board with only two answers, and the moment it starts asking you instead.

This Way Out: every exit arrow in the boarded-up funhouse points back in.

Short Fuse: the hothead knows exactly how to light a short fuse, and every Fourth he lights the whole block up.

Backdrop: the worst dancer in the hall falls flat and the floor calls it a backdrop.

Joint Custody: two exes split the dog, and the dog is the only one moving on.

Break It Up: the chaperone who breaks up every circle steps into the last one and breaks it down.

Kiss Cam: the big screen finally makes him ask the girl from his building, except it was framed on the row behind.

Clear the Walk: he keeps shoveling his late father's old walk until someone else learns to do it.

Snake Oil: the con man's fake cure-all actually works, and now the whole parish wants more.

Made to Measure: a calm fitting for a sharp new suit, and the suit is for a casket.

Don't Move: the cops yell freeze at a b-boy battle, and the crew takes it as a challenge.

Double or Nothing: the hater keeps betting the kid flops, and every lost bet pays for the album.

Exact Change: a vending machine in a dead hospital pays back what you lost, and it pays him in his own teeth.

Grow on You: the kudzu takes every house in the hollow, and the lost neighbors wave him in from inside the green.

Breakup: the river ice goes out and the man who never cries breaks open with it.

Bring the House Down: the man who mops the concert hall sings to the empty seats, and one night the orchestra plays under him.

Fold: he folds his best friend's flag thirteen times, and the mother gives it back to the friend who never folds.

Wing It: he beats the wing challenge with a minute to spare, and Rhonda brings out the real plate.

Meltdown: two ice cream trucks blare at each other all summer until a lemonade stand takes the block.

After You: nobody will take the last samosa, so he cuts it thirty ways and starts a bigger fight.

Squeeze Play: he bags the biggest python in the Glades, and on the ride home the sack starts moving.

Say Less: an eleven-year argument in hand gestures, won the day his friends tie his hands.

Spin Doctor: he dances on the roof of his spinning car, then steps off and lets it spin on empty.

Sight Unseen: he wins the storage unit nobody would touch and finds the lock was shut from the inside.

Secret Ingredient: the runner-up at the firehouse chili night always vanishes, so he wrecks his pot to come in last, and she changes the recipe.

Blowout: every secret on the block passes through her chair, and the detective who came to question her leaves with nothing.

Shake the Cup: nobody told him the rule, so he outdrinks the old host's coffee pot, thirty cups deep.

Ghost Bike: he keeps chaining a white bike where his mate died, and the man sent to cut it off chains one beside it.

Worry Beads: the block reads the old man's beads, and when they go quiet, the loud kid is the only one who stays.

Sea Legs: the toughest talker is seasick every morning and still hauls the most, then falls flat on dry land.

Sing You Small: the jarl mocks the skald, and the skald writes him into the saga as the man who fell in the latrine.

Elbow Grease: the skinny kid finally beats the arm-wrestling champ, and then the champ's granny pins him.

Front wheel up, I don't come down

You got thirty days to come back for it

I don't do miracles, I make house calls

I always finish on a double

Point of order, I got the floor

Everything you lose ends up with me

Play me backwards, I still say the same thing

We pull more power than the mine

Get in my guard and you don't get out

I bring the mountain down before it comes for you

I got the letters and the last word

Every foot I drill, I go back a thousand years

Light the fuse and look up

I don't need to be big to move you

Write my name on the hill

Let me get it out

Take the Wheel: the hater says the car does the driving, gets the keys, stalls it, and watches the car get pushed across the line by hand.

One Chop: she opens every coconut with one swing, and the rival who laughed ends up buying from her hill.

Over and Out: a long-silent station answers his Halloween call and begs him to stop sending before the thing on his signal finds him.

Hammer Down: he smashes crabs at full speed and gets nothing but shell, while Miss Pearl cleans three dozen and his tray too.

Heavy Lifting: a man with a bad back lifts a car off a neighbor kid, then cannot move it an inch at the scrapyard.

Knock Off: three knocks in the timber mean get out, and the man who never fed the knockers finds them knocking at home.

Full Pull: an old tractor crawls the whole track after the chrome champ blows a rod, then drags the sled into the beer tent.

Raise Hell: a wild man's will demands a punch at his wake instead of hymns, and the reverend is the one who throws it.

Hundred Proof: the agent wants proof of the still, gets poured a hundred of it, and never finds the place again.

Go On: the whole quay shouts a young man off the island instead of begging him to stay, and he tears up his return ticket.

At My Convenience: seven years on the overnight, he buys the store and keeps the night shift anyway, on his own terms.

Bo Kata: he cuts every kite out of the Basant sky, and every cut one falls to the kids in the alley.

I'm still doing community service

I'm away for the messages, don't wait up

Every drive I ever had was a blood drive

Put me in the box, I run the game from in here

Everybody counts, and I'm the one that counts

Every note, every beat, I'm a full combo

Your mouth says home, but the miles say different

I got a brand new hip and I'm hipper than you

No warranty, no promises, sold as is

Turn them into the wind

I scream, you scream, the whole block screams

We were the B-side, and you played us more

I walked under every ladder to get to you

Nobody buys me, I pay my own way

I'm not your mirage, I'm the water

I've got the clearest view in the city from the outside

Broom Service: the downstairs neighbor's broom keeps perfect time until he comes up with his own bass.

Go-Slow: a four-hour Lagos traffic jam becomes the party, and nobody wants it to move.

Sleep On It: the scarecrow gets one row closer every morning, and he finally learns who carries it.

Tuned Out: his silent disco headset is dead, and the whole roof chases whatever he's dancing to.

Nothing Personal: the repo man never learns a name, until the last address on the list is his own.

By Heart: at their first headline show, the whole room raps his late partner's verse word for word.

Come as You Were: at a twenties Halloween party, he's the only guest wearing a costume.

Air It Out: two grown-ups trade bars in a kid's bounce castle until the birthday boy pulls the plug.

Make Hay: a hay crew races a black front, and the last bale beats the rain.

Above It All: a man who never left the county takes his first flight and watches every worry turn into a dot.

Broken Record: the hater's same old complaint becomes the hit, and then he wants a cut.

Round on Me: the first paycheck in nine months buys the whole bar a round, even the man who laid him off.

Ask the ref, ask the feds, I keep a clean sheet

Everything is priced to go, and baby, that includes you

I bought it for a dollar, y'all ain't buy it

You call it empties, I call it rent

I'mma land it, watch me land it

Scared of the coven, good, that's the point

She's a ringer, mate, she's a ringer

Get on the horse, the horse knows the way

Still kicks, still kicks, one kick and she goes

This is my forwarding address, I'm going forward

I'm allergic to you, I keep coming back

Meet me in the middle, I'll meet you in the rock

I'm over your head, I'm over your head

It's crush hour, crush hour, every day at eight

Stand up, stand up, take the chair

I missed the boat, so I took the sea

Yes Man: the hater says no with his mouth while his neck keeps nodding yes.

Between Flashes: at a Halloween warehouse rave something only moves while the strobe is dark, so he keeps the lights on till dawn.

Lip Service: on Halloween a ventriloquist's dummy starts telling secrets he never threw, and the act runs the other way.

Snow Day: a Gulf Coast city that never sees snow wakes up white, and the block grump builds the first snowman.

Everybody Out: a Friday fire drill turns nine hundred office workers into a hard house rave on the plaza.

Both Parts: a widower at the Friday salsa social dances her part and his, and the band follows him.

The House Always Wins: last call at a dive, and the owner hits the house lights and settles it herself.

Hot Mic: the backing track crashes at an arena debut and the quiet one is the only one in the group singing live.

Fireweed: after the canyon fire the first thing back on the black hill is the flower that only grows where it burned.

Off Your Back: his stolen gold sequin jacket turns up on a groom, and he waits for the first dance to take it back.

Low and Slow: a copycat steals his rub and opens across the highway, so he relights the old pit and lets the smoke do it.

Cast Off: six weeks in a leg cast, and the day it comes off he dances straight out of the clinic.

Skin Deep: the hater calls the music shallow and wears one of its lines inked on his forearm.

Spare Me: a lone bowler on Halloween night and a scoreboard name that matches every strike.

Dig In: two grave robbers dig for a dead man's diamond on Halloween, and he knocks back.

Fair Game: the stable squire gets one scripted joust and refuses to take the fall.

Rock Bottom: banned from every venue for volume, they rent a gravel quarry and the foreman brings the dynamite.

Usual Suspect: blamed for every broken window on the street for twenty years, and nobody asks who fixes them.

Last Man Sitting: he sat in his chair all night, then the drummer called his name.

Sea Level: a prairie kid drives twenty-six hours to see the ocean and gets cut down to size.

Running Tab: the kid who stole from the corner store comes back to pay, and the notebook has the whole block in it.

Mark Time: the stadium asks for silence for the drum major, and his drumline plays his cadence instead.

Hooked: a jon boat with two subwoofers wins the bass tournament because the 808 brings the fish up.

Bacchanal: the whole island talks about Marcia all week, and every story leads to her fete.

Pronounced: every week the hater calls the music dead, and every week it gets more pronounced.

Recalculating: the voice in the dash keeps turning him around, and it turns out it is turning him away from the bridge.

Motion detected: nothing on the screen, every clip a little darker, and nothing keeps on moving in.

Leg Day: they skip leg day, he never skipped a beat, every kick is a rep and every night is leg day.

Two Steps Ahead: he brags he is two steps ahead of everyone, and Shay is the one who put him there.

Fresh Line Up: one sharp line up on Saturday, and the whole block gets in line behind him.

Red Means Go: every red light is his stage, and green is when he stops to count the take.

Bearing Down: he is the load-bearing wall and he is bearing down on them; knock him out and the roof comes down, because the room they plot in stands on him.

Pardon My French: every polite French word he says to the owner is the warning shot.

Swore In: he swore in four languages to get here, and now he is sworn in with his name spelled right.

Small Hours: in the smallest hour of the night, the biggest thing he ever held gives him a new name.

Off the Leash: he runs the loop alone now, and he finally sees the dog was the one keeping him on track.

Worth faking: nobody fakes a penny, so every time the hater calls my tune fake he is quoting my price.

Skip a floor: the building skips thirteen, but thirteen does not skip the ones who pressed door close on you.

Spitting image: the double gets closer every year, and when he gets home first the dog does not bark at him.

Low ceiling: they said I had one, so I jumped till I dented it, and every dent is a night we meant it.

Terminus: end of the line, and the line don't end; everybody in the shed missed a stop.

Between stations: a train stalled in the dark, a radio with no signal, and eighty strangers tuning in to one voice.

Turn over: I start my late friend's engine every morning, everybody says turn it over, and the day it catches I turn it over to his little brother.

Burn the note: thirty years I said I owe, tonight I say I own, and the band plays while the paper goes up.

Best of me: you got the best of me every time since we were nine, and you made the best of me better every time.

Chancla: Mami's flip-flop don't miss, and the night somebody comes at me I find out it never did.

Snowball: they gave me a snowball's chance, so I rolled it down the hill, and every push made it bigger.

Blink first: I do not need a bar, I need you to blink, and every second I stare makes the next one hit worse.

First stone: the man who calls my records fake throws it from a vocal booth, a glass house with a microphone in the middle.

Look alive flipped: in a basement full of the dead, the moshing kids blend in and the guy who stands still is the one who looks alive.

Snap out of it: the faker hears the snap and wakes, but the town never has, and the only one awake is the kid who lied.

Arm's length: the man who keeps the world at arm's length finds the boy in the arm's length between two strangers.

Nothing overhead: no roof, no ceiling and no cost, so the song in the burned abbey carries farther than it did when the church stood.

On edge: every blade on Ash Street is on his wheel, so the whole street is on edge and only he has one.

Wrong address: the band plays the wrong house like it is the right one, and the right party walks down to it.

Deal him in: they cannot deal with it, so they deal him in, and his face-down hand keeps winning.

In ink: he does the puzzle in ink to show he never erases, and her name is the one printed in ink at the top.

Pay by the pound: weight in, weight out, and Lou pounds the floor till the pound-pricing buffet pays him.

Mint condition: struck at the Mint, worth a mint, called mint, and worth it because the Mint struck it wrong.

Second opinion: everybody gave the first one, and his is the music, because rai means opinion.

Your books are too damn clean, and clean is how I know

He came in fourth, he left in first, the race was won in the box

I catch snakes for a living, and I know one when I see one

These are the hands that move your money, now watch 'em move their feet

And it's way enough of you telling me to sit down

I'm ugly so the saints stay dry, I spit so they can rest

Slow down and the wall won't hold, so I never, never, never ride slow

Nobody stamps the girl in the booth all day long

Wide load, wide load, the whole damn home is coming through

Bottomless, baby, but I'm putting down the pot

Every night at midnight, we keep it dead even

I'm planting somebody's shade

Neither of us stands on our own

I'll stand ten feet below, so the top of the world is yours

They can lock up the mill, but they can't lock up the name

I'm gonna winter over, and then winter's over

Double blind: the hater who can spot it in two bars plays the unlabeled record three times on the jukebox and sings the harmony.

What the porch takes: a dark porch, a full bowl and a sign in purple ink, and the kid who took the whole bowl finds out who the sign was talking to.

Sing his praises: at the valley-hall contest he praises his rival so exactly, down to the one wrong note, that the hall hears who is better.

Feet don't cross: the ring-shout rule the songster calls to a grieving man all night turns out to mean don't cross over after his friend.

Make a fist: a snack-bar singer teaches a scrapping teenager the enka turn called kobushi, the word for fist, and what a fist is really for.

Last couple standing: two night-shift nurses win a twenty-four-hour dance marathon by taking turns sleeping upright on each other's shoulder.

One over: a shepherd losing a sheep a week counts one too many, and sings the count slow so the man under the fleece can hear it.

Hold the count: a young guitarist speeds up to run the singer out of the circle, and the singer claps half as fast until the whole room is on his clock.

No spoilers: a stranger on a haunted hayride calls every scare before it jumps, except the last one, which is him.

Permanent press: a crew that gets pressed out of every room after the club ends up at a laundromat that charges one wash load a head.