Scars I Kept the Receipts For

Verse 1

Knuckle split on Redding Ave, chain-link fence in the rain

Ran the block for a cousin's debt, came back with a stain

Kept the shirt in a drawer, still got the rust-colored crease

Every mark on my body got a story and a piece

Corner store owner fronted me a coat when I was nine

Paid him back in shoveled snow, February, one line

Scar under my eye from a brick thrown at fifteen

Traded silence for safety, never told what I'd seen

Momma's ring in a sock drawer, pawned it for the light bill

Got it back in July, kept the ticket on the windowsill

That's the ledger I'm running, not a number, not a name

Every wound got a witness, every witness got a claim

Pre-Chorus

What's the price on a favor when the favor draws blood

What's a scar if you can't name the flood

I been counting what it cost me since I was young

Chorus

Scars I kept the receipts for

Every one got a reason, every reason got a door

Ask me what I paid, I can show you, I got proof

Scars I kept the receipts for

Verse 2

Told my brother I'd hold it down, held it down for a year

Sleeping on his couch spring, digging change out my ear

Landlord banged at the door like he owned the whole floor

Slid an envelope under, wrote the date on the drawer

Watched a friend fold under weight that I carried twice

Still I kept his number saved, still I gave advice

Burn scar on my forearm from the stove in that place

Heating water for a bath 'cause the pipes had no grace

Every callus on my palm is a season I survived

Every debt I settled quiet kept my people alive

I don't flex the damage, I just carry it clean

Proof that I showed up for the ones I love, unseen

Pre-Chorus

What's the price on a favor when the favor draws blood

What's a scar if you can't name the flood

I been counting what it cost me since I was young

Chorus

Scars I kept the receipts for

Every one got a reason, every reason got a door

Ask me what I paid, I can show you, I got proof

Scars I kept the receipts for

Bridge

Found the box last winter, dust across the lid

Ring, the ticket, the burnt-up sleeve, everything I hid

Realized the scars ain't debt no more, they're just the way I stand

Stopped keeping score for others, started reading my own hand

Same block, same ache, but I carry it different now

Proof ain't for the world to see, it's how I take a bow

Chorus

Scars I kept the receipts for

Every one got a reason, every reason got a door

Ask me what I paid, I can show you, I got proof

Scars I kept the receipts for