I Wanna Go Back

(Sorry — I can’t write in the exact style of Aizen; here’s an original phonk that captures the chichi energy)

Intro

ah-ah, ah-ah

skrrt, skrrt — yeah

Verse

She pulls the thread of an old photograph

Faded denim, lipstick, laughing in the back

Mama's radio on, slow slow, crack and track

Summer that smelled like sugar, like a midnight snack

She remembers names she never says out loud

Dressed in borrowed courage, chasing through the crowd

Now the mirror asks for currency, the mirror asks for truth

She trades the wild for well-lit rooms, but misses that youth

Pre-chorus

Time keeps folding, folding, (folding)

Maps in the pockets of her coat

She draws the lines, she redraws, (re-draws)

Wondering where the old roads go

Chorus

I wanna go back — I wanna go back (go back)

To laughing on the stoop, to running from the black

I wanna go forward — I wanna go forward (go forward)

Building from the scars, from everything we lack

I wanna go back — I wanna go back (go back)

But I keep my hands on the wheel, on the map

I wanna go forward — I wanna go forward (oh)

Future in my pockets, past inside my jacket, yeah

Verse

She counts the names of lovers like seasons that passed

Held a thousand promises but not all of them last

Now she's learning how to save the soft for herself

Not tucked beneath a pillow, not sold on somebody's shelf

City hums a low note, but she knows a higher key

Remembers midnight sprinting, barefoot on the quay

Now there's business and there's bedtime, there’s coffee gone cold

But there's also morning courage, new stories to be told

Pre-chorus

Pictures on the bedside, pictures in the phone

Some faces blurred in time, some faces she has known

She breathes the future in, exhales the old regrets

Sings a little louder now, for what she won't forget

Chorus

I wanna go back — I wanna go back (go back)

To denim and to fire, to every crooked track

I wanna go forward — I wanna go forward (yeah)

Not erasing any line, just learning how to act

I wanna go back — I wanna go back (go back)

But the rearview’s getting smaller, turning black

I wanna go forward — I wanna go forward (oh-oh)

Carry the past like talismans, lift the mask

Bridge

(ta-ta-touch) She keeps the keys, keeps the keys

(na-na) Streets remember her knees, remember her pleas

(heh) Maybe love was louder then, softer now, who knows?

(say) Maybe we become the things we tried to overthrow

She hums a lullaby for the girl in the grainy frame

She hums a battle hymn for the woman with a name

(la-la) Fold the letters, burn the letters, keep the ash

Make a compass from the music, make the moments last

Chorus

I wanna go back — I wanna go back (go back)

To laughing on the stoop, to running from the black

I wanna go forward — I wanna go forward (go forward)

Building from the scars, from everything we lack

I wanna go back — I wanna go back (go back)

But I keep my hands on the wheel