Pompeii - Billy Woods

You paid the price, you followed orders

Months at a time laying in ambushes by the borders

The blunt cackle of gun battles, last breath death rattles, air-sucking thump

of mortars

Them flames, hideously gorgeous

And when command said find the informants

You followed orders

You visited the camps

You oversaw the torture

You tightened the clamps

You lied to reporters

You dug the pits

You made sure the confessions were recorded

You still see their faces

Corners of your eyes is morbid

Copper in the air taste it

Flowing like a open faucet

Can’t erase it

But you a soldier

You follow orders

Once the war was won

Switch fatigues for corporate

Suits and ties, close those eyes

Still see them clear as portraits

Watching yourself go through the motions

Pretending you’re not dead adrift in a black ocean

So imagine the relief when the indictments are finally read

Grey hair on your head

Lean into the mic flanked by lawyers

And finally tell someone

All you did was follow orders

One time is one time

Cause that’s all it takes to change your life

You did have it coming but no worries

The postman always rings twice, thrice

The ghost came past present future

Price on your dome so chunky anyone could be the shooter

Then lay low as you lie down

Uneasy is the head that rocks the crown

One time is one time

Cause that’s all it takes to change your life

You did have it coming but no worries

The postman always rings twice

It always starts small

Got a little something, made it flip

Not about to ball, just upgrade the whip

Maybe a little something on the wrist

Your little dun seen your new kicks

He see you in the hall smoking sticks

Seen the ass on your new bitch, poke it

Baby powder between the tits

Keep bugging you, he got the itch

You let him get a taste

Twelve months later he taking the trips

Cause now you shaving bricks, cinder blocks, masonry bits

Family ties like Cain and Abel

Cutting cocaine on the kitchen table

Ain’t want no trouble

But evil got roots

You said no guns but he said he had to shoot

Fire out the cannon

You can’t serve God and Mammon

Flying back uptown, interior salmon

Cops got y’all jammed in

You made the wrong move, try to ram them

Boys in blue commence to blammin'

And just like that you both out the game like the old bandits

Commissioners press conference only got room for standing

At the funeral team poured some liquor

They commence to plotting and planning

Divide up and re up before the first shovel full of dirt landed

Moms distraught but the uncles' is like

What the fuck did she think would happen!

One time is one time

Cause thats all it takes to change your life

You did have it coming but no worries

The postman always rings twice trice

The ghost came past present future

Price on your dome so chunky anyone could be the shooter

Then lay low as you lie down

Uneasy is the head that rocks the crown

One time is one time

Cause thats all it takes to change your life

You been have it coming but no worries

The postman always rings twice