Jojb - Young John Able Lyrics

If my room is a reflection of my mind
If my house a metaphor for how far
Then my mind is like a rusty crowbar
A million similes I need to find

It might now be my first language
But when I hear it I forget about the anguish
The blues, they stop and they're back again
And I forget that now we end

If those I meet treat me mean
Then where is my control
It's an after thought, timeless spells cast
Two bullets shot from my soul

Violence might now be the answer
And as a prince it rarely ever is
But sometimes kings must go to war
All's fair, who cares what it's for

There once was a man named John Able
He never committed a crime
Swooned all the girls but stuck to one
Before he lost his life

Pretty young thing, Rose Maple
Three syllables like chili and lime
He asked her to the promenade
Her fro as big as her eyes

He learned to read woke religion
As if in another life
A Black boy free, joy not misery
A Chicago middle-class life

He read one day in church word of the day
No pride before his fall
Mitochondrial Eve is believed
To be the mother of us all

But then one day he went driving
I said I don't know how to begin
So I distracted with a song
She started near the end

He's driving along; things are normal
Unarmed man stopped him at a light
Well, it was war so he was armed
With a crowbar at his side

You can guess that in that battle
Old,Young John, he aimed to fight
But that crowbar, man, got the best
Poor Young John's brain had died

But this story's only endings
Spicy-sweet, like chili and lime
The boys in blue they never could
Get to the root of the crime

If these pictures that I've hung up
Could tell a million lies
They'd say something of the truth
Why poor John was crucified

Reincarnation, not my language
I feel that I've my own life
But deep in my heart I'm incarnate of
Young John, our brother, who never cried

But what about young Miss Maple
She's cut her hair but her eyes are still wide
She cut it for the promenade
And went with some other guy

It's not fair, never is
Me to live in my prime
When John fell I was conceived
You can say I was the reason he died

My mind is a reflection of my past
The future projected in time
I can't move at the speed of light
But I know I'll never stop trying