The Kroger on Cascade (Five Miles from Murder Kroger)

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
Tuesday, 5:17 p.m.
Eighty-seven degrees on the asphalt.
Smells like bus diesel and hot pavement from the MARTA shelter.
You push the red plastic cart, one wheel always wants to go left.
The automatic doors slide open… 
…and the air conditioning hits you like a blessing.
Right into the produce aisle.
Mist on the collards.
Just another Tuesday.

[Chorus]
They always ask about the one on Ponce.
The one with the nickname.
The one with the t-shirts.
But this ain't that Kroger.
This is the Kroger on Cascade.
Five miles and a whole different story south of the hype.
No ghosts in the aisles, just neighbors getting by.

[Verse 2]
Past the bakery, toward the heat lamps.
That hot bar fried chicken is calling my name.
See Mrs. Johnson by the deli, arguing about the thickness of the turkey slice.
Same as last week.
The cart rattles past the cereal.
The floor needs a good mopping by the dairy case.
Nobody's writing songs about this.
It's just where you buy the milk.

[Chorus]
They always ask about the one on Ponce.
The one with the nickname.
The one with the t-shirts.
But this ain't that Kroger.
This is the Kroger on Cascade.
Five miles and a whole different story south of the hype.
No ghosts in the aisles, just neighbors getting by.

[Bridge]
It’s a strange kind of fame, isn’t it?
A city held together by a running joke about a grocery store.
A punchline for people who drive through.
But here... it’s just the landmark for turning left.
The place you run into your cousin.
The place that never closed, not in 1993, not in 2017.
It just stayed the Kroger.

[Chorus]
So you can have the one on Ponce.
The one with the nickname.
The one with the t-shirts.
This ain't that Kroger.
This is the Kroger on Cascade.
Five miles and a whole different story south of the hype.
No ghosts in the aisles, just us.

[Outro]
Doors slide open again.
Back into the heat.
Plastic bags cutting into my fingers.
The number 71 bus hisses at the stop.
Home time.