Numbers Say NoHouse of Alibaba

The ink on the page was a eulogy for the life I was supposed to lead Calculus of doubt, they did the division, and the answer wasn't me One-twenty questions, I only got one entrance And the door was locked twice, they called it a dead end, I called it a lesson Then the job at the chicken spot, twenty-four apply Smell of the grease and the manager's sneer as he passed me by Twenty-three said yes, I'm the one they couldn't clear Left a taste in my mouth, saltier than a single tear They see a deficiency, a flaw in the design I see a probability anomaly, a rare find They're playing checkers with my future, moving pieces on a board I'm playing Go, surrounding the whole damn thing, waiting for my reward. The numbers said no, the vision said when The numbers said I'm done, I said, "Do it again." The numbers made me an outcast, a statistic, a ghost So I memorized the numbers 'til I knew 'em the most. Pushing pedals with a spine full of splinters Delivering their magazines through Hangzhou's cold winters Heavy bundles of their stories, while I'm trying to write my own Felt the weight of every page, felt the chill in every bone Rejected from the hotels, said I wasn't tall enough to serve Another measurement, another standard, another nerve Hit the library on Sunday, the only church that felt true Memorizing formulas 'til my knuckles turned blue Reading Lu Yao's Life, saw a future I had to refuse it A cautionary tale of a genius drowning, knew I had to lose it Or I'd be him, a talent trapped by circumstance and fate So I swallowed all the pride and I learned to recalculate. The numbers said no, the vision said when The numbers said I'm done, I said, "Do it again." The numbers made me an outcast, a statistic, a ghost So I memorized the numbers 'til I knew 'em the most. Every door they slammed shut just tempered the steel Made the hunger more real, made the vision reveal Itself in the darkness, a fire that wouldn't extinguish I collected every "no" like a debt I would relinquish With interest, compounding daily inside of my chest They thought they were crushing a spirit, they were putting it to the test They didn't bury a body, they planted a seed Now watch it break the concrete, fueled by nothing but need. The numbers said no... so be it.