| Me and Fat Joe were riding in the back
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| Of an industrial-strength delivery van
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| I couldn’t catch a clear view of the driver’s face
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| But I could tell it wasn’t a feminine friend
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| The ground plans for battle were all laid
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| We were just taking some time to kick it, eat grapes and parlay
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| It was just him and me in a van with the gate to gay
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| We taste the grapes and spit the seeds in the street
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| The highway was a scalpel splicing the sands
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| An impressive impression of man’s demand for the connection of lands
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| I look back at Joe and laugh
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| I give the grapes a puff and a pass spitting another seed out of the back
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| Joe squints his eyes
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| Lets out a sound that can only be described as a laughter and sigh, combined
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| His pale olive fingers pry another one of the fruits off the vine
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| «We should return here in ten years time.» |
| I ask him why
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| «So we can drink the wine from the orchard that is grown from the seeds we
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| alone cast aside.»
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| As the sun sunk lower on the sand, dust sprayed from the tires
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| The wind picked up the grains displayed them in spirals
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| And I held the last grape up to eclipse the sun
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| The breeze plucked it from my fingers and the lunch was done
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| Father was an engine driver
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| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
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| Leave my mark at all
|
| Father was an engine driver
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| Grandpa fought the war
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| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| Leave my mark at all
|
| Me and 2Pac Shakur sat inside a donut shop
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| Sharing a dozen and watching the coffee cool
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| One by one the box slowly emptied
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| From the cakes to the crullers and at last the fancies
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| Pac sighed aloud so I could hear him
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| «Donuts are communism»
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| I asked him why, he said
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| «Better in theory»
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| We laughed and scratched the sleep from our eyes
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| He said, «This is ridiculous, 12 is too much, half a dozen wastes our time
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| But every time we order twelve thinking we can handle it
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| And every time we end up pissed because we made our stomachs sick"
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| We both laugh a bit and gingerly sip our coffee
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| His fingers scrape the tabletop and he digs in softly
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| And I watch him there, carving, scraping, both sitting in silence
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| As he engraves his name with the word «West side» beside it
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| And underneath the orange veneer of the donut shop gear
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| There’s an earthy brown flesh that excavation makes appear
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| And year after year Pac and I return there
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| To the table that he claimed with the matching bench chairs
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| Chug the last of our coffee and stand to leave
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| Wave to the clerk, she says goodbye in Chinese
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| Clutching our sick stomachs we both struggle to speak
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| Shake our heads, split our ways, and say, «See you next week»
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| Father was an engine driver
|
| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| Leave my mark at all
|
| Father was an engine driver
|
| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| Leave my mark at all
|
| Father was an engine driver
|
| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| Leave my mark at all
|
| Father was an engine driver
|
| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| You can sing along
|
| Father was an engine driver
|
| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| Leave my mark at all
|
| Father was an engine driver
|
| Grandpa fought the war
|
| Hope that I can maybe size up
|
| Leave my mark at all |