What the Debt Remembers

Verse

Ninety-four, the fridge went quiet on a Tuesday night

Mama tried the breaker twice, still it wouldn't light

Miss Odessa ran a cord from her window to ours

Thirty feet of orange rubber kept the milk from going sour

She never asked for nothing, not a dollar, not a debt

Just said child you good and closed the screen door set

I was eight years old counting outlets like they's currency

Learned the first thing free still costs you permanently

Pre-Chorus

Now I got the numbers, got the keys, got the deed

Some accounts don't close just cause you don't need

What do you owe a woman for a summer full of light

Line item empty but the balance still is right

Chorus

The debt remembers what the paper don't

Every hand that fed us when the lights was gone

Interest ain't money, it's a name you keep

The debt remembers even when you sleep

Verse

Twenty years later I'm the one with the spare key

Her furnace coughing smoke, she called me instead of family

Paid the bill for December, wrote it no return

She said boy don't do this, I said woman it's your turn

Buried her in March, cardinal on the tent stake

Wrote her name in the margin where the numbers used to break

Every dollar that I move got her thumbprint on the edge

Interest paid in kindness, standing on a borrowed ledge

Pre-Chorus

Now I got the numbers, got the keys, got the deed

Still can't balance out a kindness planted like a seed

What do you owe a woman who wired up the dark

Line item empty but the debt still leaves a mark

Chorus

The debt remembers what the paper don't

Every hand that fed us when the lights was gone

Interest ain't money, it's a name you keep

The debt remembers even when you sleep

Bridge

Last week I ran a cord to the family down the hall

Told the boy don't thank me, just remember after all

Some debts don't get paid, they just change whose hand holds the wire

The current keeps on moving past the coldest kind of hour

Chorus

The debt remembers what the paper don't

Every hand that fed us when the lights was gone

Interest ain't money, it's a name you keep

The debt remembers even when you sleep