Ledger of Loyalty (Version 2)

Intro

Composition notebook, black and white marble skin

Sharpie on the cover say property of Renny's kin

Corner of Corvale where the bodega used to breathe

Every favor got a number, nothing owed for free

Verse

Uncle Renny kept a tab under the register drawer

Nine-oh-three, milk and bread, paid it back in June for sure

He taught me numbers ain't just for the cash you spend

Said track the ones who show, not the ones who pretend

Wrote Miss Pearl in blue ink, watched my momma's shift

She covered daycare Tuesdays, never asked, never a gift

Wrote Dashawn in red when he pushed my car three blocks

Battery dead on Fenmore, rain coming down in socks

Store closed in oh-nine, Renny moved down to Georgia

Left me the notebook, said keep the ledger, boy, in order

I added pages, kept the system running strong

A name earns trust the way a hook earns a song

Ten years deep now, spine cracked, corners curling brown

Every soul on Corvale got a line, up or down

Some folks pay it forward, some let the balance lapse

I don't forget a favor, I just wait, I don't collapse

Chorus

I keep a ledger of loyalty, ink don't fade

Every name gets a number, every debt gets paid

Not in dollars, in Sundays, in rides you gave

That's the only interest a ledger of loyalty pays

Verse

Phone rings two a.m., Dashawn's voice all static thin

Says he's at the precinct, bail's twelve hundred, let me in

I flip back to his page, three favors, one still open