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The Ladder (Dylan Roth)

from Songs My Friends Wrote! by Jay Ackley

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lyrics

She woke up in a sweat-soaked panic
and it wasn't from a dream—
It was a string of soft numbers, the blue and the red,
burned in her head last night off the TV screen.
She caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror
and it wasn't who she'd been.
Some deeper level of stupid, some newfound circle of hell,
some wicked spell started dragging her in.

What have you done?
You cut the bottom rungs off of the ladder.
Now no one's getting out of here alive.

She took a ride on a silent subway,
no one looked her in the eyes.
Was like this city of color had gone gray overnight,
and all the light was snuffed out by the sick surprise.
She walked to work with her head on a swivel
cuz she don't know who to trust.
How many cordial neighbors, how many casual friends,
how many men think she's lesser than them?

You pinned your hands to the top of the ladder
so if you go down then we'd all go down too.
Well now the morning has come.
We're cutting right to the heart of the matter:
We'd rather burn this fucker down than be like you.

Oh, well what have we done?
No, no, we can't blame it all on our fathers.
we can't let them think they've won
we'll build their bones into rungs of the ladder,
and turn it on its side and walk across.

credits

from Songs My Friends Wrote!, released July 2, 2019

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Jay Ackley Brooklyn, New York

Minnesotan in Brooklyn by way of London; having a sing-song through the dystopia.

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