Before

You have a collect call from an inmate at an Alie Nation correctional facility
To accept the charges press one
Thank you, connecting now

It’s me Jack, listen you got to find Charlie
You guys got to find, you gotta find him and pass this on to him before it’s too late
I think it’s too late already but I’m begging you, try for me
You guys got pull, you do
People listen to you, you know they do
So maybe, just maybe that kid Charlie, he’ll hear this too
Charlie I don’t know how I’m going to survive in here, I think I want to die, I mean it
I’m surrounded by animals, beasts without nations
It’s a human zoo with the hyenas in charge, and I’m just at the start of the sentence and I got no relations

When you guys find him, please tell him this
You still come to me sometimes Charlie, your thin face, your cheekbones sharp as knives
You were lost, no doubt about it
You ran away from that residential school and all you wanted, you said, was just to get home
Your face still haunts me and it’s always at moments when I least want to remember you

When another news reports announce the find of another murdered Indian woman, I wonder is this is the one who will be numb
I think of you Charlie when I’m walking in my hood and the cops throw me on the concrete because I rock my colors
I remember you when I’m jonesing for something I know I can’t have
I hate to say it, but sometimes I wish I never met you
I wish they never did in that school what they did to you
You’re still hurting Charlie, we’re going to hurt for a long time
We hurt from the before and it makes us hurt so bad right now