MANTO

They pulled him out of Rawalpindi

Nani speak Punjabi, but my mama speakin' Hindi

My only inheritance is broken tongues within me

Generational trauma for Punjabis and the sindhis

What's in a line, I could draw one every time

I stand in line in court when they bagged me for a crime

A sword or a nine, used to tear and divide

They took what's ours, now they say that's not mine

Yo, I dream of ghost trains with the corpses

Opposition forces murderin' on horses

Leave behind broken homes and hearts like it's porcelain

A border divorcin' a soul and it's sources

A nation divided, my people, they riot

I asked my dad why my grandma so quiet

I asked my mom why my grandma's not smilin'

I asked my therapist why I'm always wildin'

Tears on my mom's face, but she's not cryin'

Her subconscious yearns for a home, and she's tryin'

To figure it out, but her dreams are now dyin'

My mom says she doesn't remember, she's lyin'

They say the body keeps the score

I wish we coulda kept our home, but now that's no more

Refugees, we went from bein' poor to bein' poor

Now I drown my pain in whiskey bottles that I pour

Sometimes I feel like Manto

Drink my pain away, I stay smokin' on the fronto

Tried to put us on the side like we was Tonto

Scattered to London, to New York and Toronto

PTSD for somethin' I didn't witness

The doctor said I lack mental fitness

So I put it on the record like it's Guinness

What's in a line? I marvel at it's thinness

Yo, I'm just a product of partition

Need a victims' compensation fund to pay clinicians

Need a physician, I said maybe a magician

Only way to process it is write like it's my mission

I said this my addition

This my addition

Like it's my mission

Yo, yo