Lunch Money

[Verse 1:]
Mama playing hide-and-seek with the rent
Long month, short [noodle?] but she sings when she vents
She don't vent very often, most as oft as she prays
Not a song about bitching, a song to relate
'Cause these days we doing better than the yesterdays, thanks
It gave appreciation, and plus it gave me patience for grace
'Cause without an omega, I doubt that y'all a' heard of me
She taught me hope, my brothers taught me jokes through adversity
I used to sit a baby, bitching how I hate peas
Mama dropped perspective, catch [election?], catch a lesson on Haiti
Whoever saying [be in sports will bless?] is crazy
Sometimes I even miss it, flipping powdered milk and trying to make cream
But coffee creamer floats, yo, [get it most, maybe dope?]
Ghost like the nose on the Tasty-O's box
Sharing skates, but now I'm doing radio drops
God must have saved me, 'cause now I sing "it's gravy though, pops"
We came a long way, it's crazy, it made us stress-proof
I mean, we still catch stresses, still know that there's a heaven
Know Miss Davis was an angel sending a butter - a blessing
A lesson: "love thy neighbor", straight from Scripture manifested
Learn to count them on a thousand hands, it's how to stay humble
It's something real that most don't have of learning love through the struggle
So now I give it 'cause I got it, a gift [and hung low?]
For those who feel just like I felt, ain't no light in they tunnel

[Chorus:]
God bless the welfare mama, stretch the Ramen noodle
Thinking heck to catch a breakfast and lunch up in the school, yo
Some call it cornbread, some noodle, some menudo
Got a song they call "[the sun hot as love?]" that'll see us through though
(x2)

[Verse 2:]
Pops trynna catch a break and it's hard
Still never seen him steal, seen him break steel, seen him take steel
Hardest part of fatherhood, I never figured 'til I figured out
No money-hungry mouth [apart?] delivered through the drought
Now a shorty's on a tour through Europe, don't deserve it
Observe respectfully I got [checked?], learned a sermon
Hella jelly on them sandwiches and greasy cheese
Preach me Plutarch and Cicero on G.E.D's
Between these fiends, foodstamps, and banshees
I reflect on those times when they throw up their hands to understand me
No fantasy compares, I hope you hear it with your family:
Don't get everything you want because then you'll understand need
Then other fams will eat deep like suffering's a canopy
It can be, even though sometimes this shit's insanity
Here I am just rambling, a hook and a verse
I took a sec to recollect, it could've been better, but could've been worse

[Chorus:]
God bless the welfare mama, stretch the Ramen noodle
Thinking heck to catch a breakfast and lunch up in the school, yo
Some call it cornbread, some noodle, some menudo
Got a song they call "[the sun hot as love?]" that'll see us through though
(x2)