diff --git a/core/Cargo.toml b/core/Cargo.toml
index 8e55239..6cd542c 100644
--- a/core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/core/Cargo.toml
@@ -5,10 +5,8 @@ authors = ["Ava <ava@sunnypup.io>"]
 edition = "2021"
 
 [dependencies]
+# cant have math without libc I guess...
 libm = "0.2.8"
-# this one provides a global constant lookup table for simple
-# string escaping in the lexer
-phf = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["macros"] }
 
 [lib]
 name = "flesh"
diff --git a/core/src/lex.rs b/core/src/lex.rs
index bac40f8..c8a006b 100644
--- a/core/src/lex.rs
+++ b/core/src/lex.rs
@@ -19,17 +19,19 @@ use alloc::boxed::Box;
 use alloc::string::{String, ToString};
 use crate::segment::{Ctr, Seg};
 use crate::error::{Traceback, start_trace};
-use phf::{Map, phf_map};
 
 const UNMATCHED_STR_DELIM: &str = "Unmatched string delimiter in input";
 const UNMATCHED_LIST_DELIM: &str = "Unmatched list delimiter in input";
 
-
-static ESCAPES: Map<char, char> = phf_map! {
-    'n' => '\n',
-    't' => '\t',
-    '\\' => '\\',
-};
+#[inline]
+fn escape(input: &char) -> char {
+    match input {
+        'n'  => '\n',
+        't'  => '\t',
+        '\\' => '\\',
+        _ => input.clone(),
+    }
+}
 
 /* takes a line of user input
  * returns an unsimplified tree of tokens.
@@ -86,10 +88,7 @@ fn process(document: &String) -> Result<Box<Seg>, String> {
             delim = *d;
 
             if delim == '*' {
-                token.push(ESCAPES.get(&c)
-                           .cloned()
-                           .or(Some(c))
-                           .unwrap());
+                token.push(escape(&c));
                 delim_stack.pop();
                 continue;