Josiah Vermont

Pass Me By
-Josiah Vermont


There’s this scene that keeps playing through the back of my head
where my back is against the wall and they’re surrounding me
In this dream all my family and my close friends are dead
A voice whispering in my ear says “You can still be free”
Well, baby, you and i have been down through some rough streets before
like the time you got the message that was directed at someone from my past
You stuck through all those fires i put you through and more
Could have deserted me so many times, but instead you made it last

I’d just bought my first car, must have been eight-teen back then
There was a girl in the picture, she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen
”Who is that girl?” I can still recall asking my best friend
He said “Who, her?” And turned up Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean
Now you don’t have the looks that would win Miss World for him
but there’s richness in your features, your smile melts all the cold in me
If loving you was a crime i’d make Most Wanted’s top 10
I need you like the earth craves wind, like sand needs sea

Still remember our first time at the movies like it was yesterday
I recall your skirt, hair and lips but not the screen
At two a.m. your momma wouldn’t hear anything I’d say
Sent you away and i didn’t see you till you reached nineteen
There you were on that artistic tip and studying for a doctorate
You loved that song by Dead Prez and we lived off stew chicken with rice and peas
When i was kicking back with you everything was copasetic
You asked “you ever think of moving away?” And i laughed “don’t worry about me!”

Guess you saw it coming.. they gave me six months plus two years
When i came back everybody i had ever known were gone
I tried to find you but your momma said you disappeared
Your best friend Natalie said i should just move on
So here i am tonight with this dream that won’t fade away
Been trying to sleep through til morning light after watching the sun set
but all i get are nightmares that would make an atheist pray
and your memory is a haunt that I never can forget

So i heard you got your life together the way your parents said you should
and tried to link again through Natalie, she said now your Mom is so proud
But there were so many times growing up we had her knocking on wood
and after dark you’d sneak out to me even though you weren’t allowed
And now I’m a lonely man with kids and I’m almost forty-two
Got a good job, life, great friends and they help me get through
All these things i always wanted that i finally got to do
and I’d trade every one of them from then til now for one more chance with you

Seems like only yesterday.. in residence.. we were doing laundry
You said “mix the whites with the blue jeans” then spilled a cap of bleach on your sleeve
Then you were playing ‘Dry Cry’ on repeat in the Nissan by Sizzla Kalonji
and you were the only person besides me getting Chinese on Christmas Eve
Where was I? Oh yeah- back to that conversation with Natalie
She said you have a kid and she knows he’s doing well in school
He must take after Mommy.. I guess someone out there is a proud Daddy
knowing his son isn’t growing up to be a fool

Now you and I have gone down through some rough streets before
So if you need me, just link Natalie, you can always give me a ring
For you I’d go to the moon and back or more
Barry White said it best “My first, my last, my everything”
There’s this scene in my mind, iron in my hand
They’re shouting “This is the police! You have no escape!”
I keep waking up at that part where I’m making my last stand
Filled with premonitions but you always said “Dreams don’t walk straight”
In the land of the living, its an icy world
and i remember the time you claimed you could no longer be my girl
If you change your mind, don’t let a day pass you by because
you should be with me