Rent Money Sermons (Version 2)

Verse

Tuesday nights I hold court at the kitchen table pew

Ms. Odell brings her letters, asks me what the numbers mean

Landlord writes in red ink like a warning label glue

Fine print stacked so thick it swallows the in-between

I break it down to plain talk, peel back the legalese

Late fee clause, grace period, the words that bite like frost

Fourteen days to vacate, hid inside a paragraph like fleas

I read it twice for free 'cause knowledge is the one thing not lost

Pre-Chorus

Every folder that I open holds a family's whole address

Every stamp a small eviction, dressed up like a guess

What's a preacher if he only saves the ones who tithe

I learned the tongue of landlords just to keep my people's lives

Chorus

Rent money sermons, preached from a folding chair

Half past ten and the whole block still up there

I ain't got the answer, just the words to help you bear

Rent money sermons, that's the only prayer I share

Verse

Mr. Danny got a shutoff, thirty days turned into nine

Brings the paper shaking, asks if there's a loophole to design

Found him an extension buried on the second page

Called the number, held for forty minutes, watched him pace

Meanwhile my own drawer's stacking envelopes I haven't touched

Doctor bill, car note, giving out way more than I got to spare

Funny how I fix the language but I freeze up on my own

Preacher man half drowning while he's walking the whole street home

Pre-Chorus

Every folder that I open holds a story I ain't lived

Every stamp a small eviction, every silence unforgiven

What's a preacher if he only saves the ones who tithe

I'm behind on my own reading, running low on light

Chorus

Rent money sermons, preached from a folding chair

Half past ten and the whole block still up there

I ain't got the answer, just the words to help you bear

Rent money sermons, that's the only prayer I share

Bridge

Ms. Odell knocked on Thursday, no envelope in her hand

Brought a plate of something warm, said sit down, let me read the plan

Turns out she's got a cousin working down at the county desk

Turns out kindness compounds quicker than the interest

Built a church on paper, never knew the paper builds you back

Every sermon that I gave came home to fill the crack

Chorus

Rent money sermons, preached from a folding chair

Half past ten and the whole block still up there

I ain't got the answer, just the words to help you bear

Rent money sermons, that's the only prayer I share