"The Dancer"

I am a dancer
and it's something that I live to do
It's something that I'm livin' through
It's something I can give to you
I am a dancer and I think that you're a dancer too
So make spectators answer to the frantically romantic you
If you're propelled to feel the temperature, you have to move
Your soul was bouncing up and down long before and long past the groove
The act and attitude
don't require no dramatic mood,
just gratitude
for having two feet
and beats to pat 'em to
on a stage were I brought everything I had to prove and left it all
We're on to different avenues
Now, you can clap at me like "that'll do",
but I ain't said shit
This is just something that I had to do
Maybe you'd make me an idol
Bring a date to my recital
Make a night of it
You both could write a bad review
I can't be mad at you
'cause all I have for you is directions to a love deeper than any hole you'll chase a rabbit through

Dance

To fall into your arms is to know I have a purpose
I'm not alone
I'm not worthless
I'm not out of place
My doubt is
A curse is
You have a louder grace
In worship, I'm assured to a certainty
But a current of nervous speach encircles me movin' serpentine
So I rehearse sturdily, thirstily
'til it hurts and bleeds
'til they've heard of me
'til I need nurses
'til lyin' in caskets in churches
Observers
Support the arts with hard cash
And run their currency
I'm currently the first to see
They do themselves the courtesy

My child unbirthed in me,
I can't condone just how alone you felt
to come to know the only one you'll ever call your own won't help
A passed life
A sacrifice to a black strife
A vast price fastens tragedy to me fast, tight
Ash flies rapidly
In agony, I grasp sight
that they last,
cries that, one day, you wouldn't ever have to ask twice
I'd get the cash right
and you'd be shinin' like a diamond in the last light

On massive heights with the brightness of a flash white
Just you and me, my precious angel baby, that's right
And at night I view my past was a crash site
I gave so much of my youth up,
a part of me has died
But I love,
But sometimes not enough at the right time
And I'm the judged by the ones with the stones casted
I'm trippin' the light fantastic
Somebody's looking over me
and comforts my sadness

In the last light
On massive heights with the brightness of a flash white
Just you and me, my precious angel baby, that's right
And at night I view my past was a crash site
I gave so much of my youth up,
a part of me has died
But I love
But sometimes not enough at the right time
And I'm judged by the ones with the stones casted
I trip the light fantastic
Somebody's looking over me
and comforts my sadness
In the last light

Soon as I see the final curtain call,
I think about a family I've forsaken who it hurts to call
It's like there's this internal wall
That's not inadvertent at all
So hustling out of love takes me from servant to burden befallen
I'm perfectly all-in
I'm sterling, they're stallin'
My kin's hurt and appalled when I learn of their problems
They infer I'm not working to solve 'em
'cause I got a gift I won't let go to waste
and now I'm sending money instead of showing face
But when I got the gig,
they told me straight up
there were 6 spots
and out of the world's dancing population, I got picked, Pops
It's not time to quit to pick it up again
I can't be young again
I know we're hungerin'
but I am gonna win
Do you remember the room that I got discovered in?
The studio lacked AC,
The scout's attention was coveted
and it was stressful
But he tapped me on the neck
and I never thought that I'd be successful
I just felt sorta special

Now, in these seconds, stars fly
Many book us tryna buy
Cars fry, shit gets stolen
Now we game bread markets
Wreckin' far and wide
sends you cooking other guys
'Partheid, leaves you broken, sour -
Flame, lead sparking
Check you sparring sly
That gets you hooked up with the pie
Scars hide egos swollen -
Cowards: lame, dead targets
Set the bar high when you look up in the sky
Stars die, but they're rollin' out the same red carpet