Paper Dreams

[Verse] Paper cuts from counting stacks, dreams as big as city blocks, Chess games in alleys where the future tick-tocks, Corner stores where wisdom preens, Life ain't what it seems, gleaming clean in magazine screens, [Verse 2] Potholes deeper than a poet's pain, Rain on a windowpane, night runs on a train, Eyes on the prize, through shattered glass, Past, present, future, just shades of cash, [Chorus] Paper dreams, lightning beams, Chasing schemes in midnight streams, Paper dreams, ain't all they seem, Caught between the lines of a rhyming meme, [Verse 3] Nights spent scribbling on the margins, Hunger gnawing tighter than a sergeant’s bargain, Footsteps echo in the hustle's beat, Every step forward feels incomplete, [Verse 4] Junkyard relics and sidewalk confessions, Old storefronts whispering tales of recession, Ink spreads like wounds on lined pages, Held captive within economic cages, [Bridge] Voices rising in the twilight thunder, Fear falls as hope starts to blunder, Curtains drawn, reveal the act, It's a paper chase, keep your soul intact,