Bag Lady (Erykah Badu)

Lyrics

The year is 2000.
Erica Abi Wright gives the diagnosis.
And we're all still sitting in the waiting room.
Still holding our stuff.

I see you.
Shoulders curled around that vintage Samsonite suitcase.
Got the receipts from 2018 still in the side pocket.
Got the ghost of him in a faded Fendi duffel bag.
Got your seventh-grade insecurities in a little beaded purse you never open.
Each one a currency you can't spend.
A dead weight.
A debt you keep paying to a ghost.
He's not even here anymore.

Bag lady… you're gonna break your own back.
Dragging all them bags like that.
One trip is all you got.
Girl, you can't carry all that.
He ain't looking for you in there.
He's not in the past.

There's a whole new world waiting at the door.
Right there.
The air smells like rain and possibility.
But you can't reach the handle.
You got that carry-on full of screenshots.
That tote bag spilling over with what-ifs.
A steamer trunk packed with every single time you felt small.
You think it's your wealth.
Your story.
But it's just ballast, honey. Just anchors.

Bag lady… you're gonna hurt your own back.
Dragging all them bags like that.
One trip is all you got.
Girl, you gotta unpack.
He ain't looking for you in there.
The future's not in the past.

So just for a second.
Right here, on the pavement.
Put one down.
Just one.
The little one. The one with the broken zipper.
See?
Your hand is free now.
Feel how light it is?
That's the only currency that matters.
That space.
That's where the new thing grows.

Let it go.
Let it go.
Let them all go.
Pack light, baby.