Concrete Scripture (version 2)

Intro

Slab wasn't dry yet when Dale poured the block anew

Whole street came out, pressed a hand or two

Not for luck, not for play, that's the pact we knew

Whatever goes in wet stays written and true

Verse 1

Nine years old, knees on fresh cement, palm flat and small

Marcus scratched his initials right under the wall

Said this is forever, boy, better mean what you write

Ink fades on paper but stone holds the fight

I pressed mine next to his, added the date in a rush

Dale hollered wait, but we already left the smudge

That corner still got our names pressed into the ground

Forty-some summers later, same crack, same sound

My sneaker soles remember every square we claimed

Every promise that block held before we knew the game

Uncle Reese said the street don't forget who it raised

Said the concrete keeps score long after the praise fades

Watched a dealer press his name right by the drain

Six months later scratched it out himself, in shame

That's the rule down here, ain't written nowhere else

You put your name in stone, you better prove yourself

Chorus

Concrete scripture, block's own bible

Your name stays wet till your word gets stable

Press it in, you can't take it back

That's the law under every crack

Verse 2

Sabrina's initials sit by the hydrant, chipped but clear

She kept her word through every hungry year

Fed the block kids off a stove that barely stayed lit

Never asked for credit, just pressed her hand in it

Then there's the one they scratched out, deep and jagged

Told the wrong ear something, block don't forget the bragging

Walked past that spot for years, felt the gouge like a scar

Reminder that trust don't travel too far

When it's broke on this ground where the cement don't lie

I used to think it was just sidewalk, just dust gone dry

Now I know it's a ledger, every crack got a name

Every name got a story, every story got blame

or glory, depends on the weight that you carried

The block don't rush judgment, but it damn sure buries

nothing — keeps it all, plain as the day it dried

Concrete don't forgive, but it don't never lie

Chorus

Concrete scripture, block's own bible

Your name stays wet till your word gets stable

Press it in, you can't take it back

That's the law under every crack

Bridge

I go back sometimes, kneel down by the drain

Run my thumb along my name through the rain

Wonder if I lived up to what nine-year-old wrote

Some promises age like wine, some just choke

I've broken a few, patched a few with cash and time

Some scars I'm still paying down, one crooked dime

But my hand's still there, pressed in that old gray stone

Whatever I become, that mark's not mine alone

Outro

Rain comes, washes the dust, never the name

Block remembers different than the six o'clock frame

Whatever's in the concrete, stays

Long after we're gone, long after the day