Lyrics

Hook — Low, Smoky Vocal
Some people seasonal
Here when the weather feels easy
Gone when the air turns difficult
Gone when the streets get greedy
Some people seasonal
Names carved deep in my memory
We swore we’d grow old together
Summer had other plans, apparently
Seasonal…
Why everybody leave with the season?
Verse 1 — Restrained Melodic Rap
We were thirteen near the hydrant
Water jumping past the curb
Four boys sharing one old bicycle
Arguing over who went first
Dre could imitate the teachers
Malik kept the whole crew laughing
Trell said he would play professional
Once somebody saw him practicing
We had no money for vacations
So the block became the coast
Corner store sold frozen cups
Two for one if you knew Rose
Every porch became a stadium
Every alley held a race
We thought childhood lasted forever
Because tomorrow knew our names
Then August came with different tension
Older boys began recruiting
Told Dre carrying protection
Was the same as being respected
By September, he stopped joking
Started watching every vehicle
Four friends entered that summer
Only three returned to school
Hook — Ghostly Background Harmonies
Some people seasonal
Here when the weather feels easy
Gone when the air turns difficult
Gone when the streets get greedy
Some people seasonal
Names carved deep in my memory
We swore we’d grow old together
Summer had other plans, apparently
Seasonal…
Why everybody leave with the season?
Verse 2 — Conversational Confession
Dre was killed behind the market
Not because he joined a gang
Not because the news description
Said he lived a certain way
Two men argued over nothing
One shot traveled past its target
Dre was carrying milk for Grandma
When the street became his coffin
News reporter stood beside us
Called the neighborhood “high risk”
Never said he loved astronomy
Or could solve equations quick
Never said he fed stray kittens
Behind the boarded recreation center
Never said his grandmother raised him
After drugs had taken both his parents
They reduced him to a number
Sixteenth death since early June
We reduced him to a T-shirt
Because grief needed something to do
I still remember at the funeral
Malik whispering near the casket
“Why they always dress the dead up
Better than when they were active?”
Nobody answered
Some questions arrive too heavy
For grown people to carry
Bridge — Cracked Notes, Deliberate Pauses
Summer used to mean freedom
Now it sounds like ambulance tires
Used to count down till vacation
Now we count who survived
Tell me why the warmest season
Leaves the coldest empty spaces
Why do childhood photographs
Keep collecting missing faces?
Verse 3 — Weary Singing into Rap
Malik moved away that winter
His mother said the block was cursed
Trell got caught inside a robbery
Twenty years for driving first
I stayed long enough to witness
Every friendship change position
Some got swallowed by addiction
Some escaped through education
Some returned with different language
Acting like the block was shameful
Some came home and fed the children
Because survival made them grateful
Years later, I drove past the hydrant
Same water crossing different feet
Children laughing in the place
Where Dre was taken from the street
One boy looked just like him
Same crooked grin, same narrow frame
For a second, I heard Dre laughing
Then somebody called another name
That’s when I understood remembrance
Ain’t refusing to move on
It’s carrying who couldn’t make it
Into everything you become
So I tell the young ones near me
Don’t let summer steal your vision
Being loyal to your neighborhood
Don’t mean dying in its limits
Final Hook — Layered Requiem Harmonies
Some people seasonal
But their lessons never leave me
Gone when the air turned difficult
Still walking somewhere beneath me
Some people seasonal
Their voices live in my memory
We never got old together
So I’m growing for all of us, faithfully
Seasonal…
You were more than just a season
Seasonal…
I still carry every reason
Outro — Near Whisper
We thought summer meant
No school.
Long days.
Open hydrants.
Basketball after dark.
Nobody told us
Summer could be an expiration date.
Dre left in August.
Malik left in December.
Trell left in handcuffs.
I left carrying their names.
Some friends stay for life.
Some stay long enough
To change it.
And some become a season
You spend the rest of your years
Trying to understand.