Blood on the Porch Light (Version 2)

Intro

Yellow bulb over a screen door, forty-watt hum

Grandma said leave it lit till the last one come

Verse 1

Calder Street corner, curfew don't mean a thing

Moths circle round it like it's the only king

I seen fists thrown right beneath that glow

Seen Danny stumble up the steps, blood on his elbow

Nobody asked questions, just pulled him through the hall

Pressed a towel to the wound, heard his breathing stall

Porch step got a stain that bleach can't lift

Every March it darkens, like the wood keeps the gift

Grandma scrubbed it once, gave up by the third try

Said some things stay to remind you, not so you cry

I was twelve, watched the water turn to rust

Learned the light means welcome, learned the light means trust

Learned that trust got a price tag stitched in red

Learned the porch remembers everything that's said

Forty-watt witness to whatever the night gave

Still humming years later over that same grave

Hook

Porch light on for whoever needs the glow

Blood on the step, but that bulb don't go

Mama said leave it lit no matter what we lost

Blood on the porch light — that's the weight, that's the cost

Verse 2

Uncle Reggie told me cut it off, it draws the eyes

Said a lit porch is a target dressed as paradise

Said in this business softness reads as a mistake

Said the block don't reward you for the risks you take

But I remember Reggie ran here bleeding once himself

Ma wrapped his ribs in dish towels off the shelf

Same light he wants me killing kept his heart beat right

So how I cut the one thing that saved him that night

Now I'm grown, own the house, same bulb still screwed in tight

Changed it twice a year but never changed the light

Kids I don't half know still climb these concrete stairs

Some just need a minute, some just need somebody there's

I don't ask their business, I just crack the door

Learned that from a woman who buried one, maybe more

Porch got new stains now, mixed in with the old

Every mark a story that the wood already told

Hook

Porch light on for whoever needs the glow

Blood on the step, but that bulb don't go

Mama said leave it lit no matter what we lost

Blood on the porch light — that's the weight, that's the cost

Bridge

Grandma's gone three winters, left the deed to me

Left a note that said the light's the only legacy

I could sell this house, move where the porches stay clean

Where nobody's blood ever colored what I mean

But then who answers when the running feet arrive

Who's the forty-watt reason somebody stays alive

I ain't got the answer, just the switch under my thumb

Every night I flick it knowing what may come

Outro

Porch light on, Calder Street, one more year

Bulb still humming, moths still gathering here

Blood on the wood, but the wood still holds the door

That's the only inheritance I'm keeping score