Curfew Interest (version 2)

Intro

Dinwood and Ferris, streetlamp humming like a ledger

Aunt Rosalind's clock set at nine, no minute better

Porch light was a warning, curfew was currency spent

Every hour past it, I was borrowing on interest

Verse

Nine o'clock bell rings and I'm still on the corner

Marcus need a ride, his momma's car got towed on him

I clock the time, weigh the cost like a broker

Fifteen minutes late means a week with no supper

Ran the four blocks home, sneakers slapping concrete

Porch light flickered twice, Aunt Ros counting my heartbeat

Walked in at nine-twenty, she ain't say a word

Just wrote it in the ledger, said the debt's been incurred

Two weeks no basketball, phone stayed on the hook

Traded my freedom for the time that Marcus took

Never told him what it cost me, kept it tucked away

Loyalty don't ask for change, loyalty just makes you pay

Learned the curfew wasn't only 'bout the streetlight

It was insurance she was buying so I'd see daylight

Every minute that I borrowed came back doubled, tripled

That's the interest on the block, that's the block's own bible

Chorus

Nine o'clock bell, and the debt starts running

Curfew interest, taking without warning

Every minute late, that's a minute I'm owing

Curfew interest, still collecting, still growing

Verse

Different night, different debt, Trevon called me twice

Said his brother's in some trouble by the store on Fice

I checked the clock, eight-forty, weighed it like the first time

Told myself just twenty minutes, wouldn't cross that curfew line

Made it home by nine-oh-five, thought I beat the interest

Next morning heard the sirens, heard they found him near the entrance

Twenty minutes might've mattered, might've been the difference

Aunt Ros never blamed me but I read it in her silence

She kept the ledger open, never crossed his name off clean

Some debts don't get forgiven, some just haunt the in-between

Started setting earlier alarms after that scene

Started answering the phone before the curfew intervenes

Now I pay it forward, keep a curfew for my nephew

Told him come home safe, let the interest go and teach you

Every hour he stays out I'm the one that's holding steady

Ledger's in my hands now, and my hands stay ready

Chorus

Nine o'clock bell, and the debt starts running

Curfew interest, taking without warning

Every minute late, that's a minute I'm owing

Curfew interest, still collecting, still growing

Bridge

Aunt Ros gone three winters, clock still on my wall

Nine o'clock it chimes and I stand up straight and tall

Wasn't punishment, was armor, wasn't rules, was love disguised

Every curfew that she gave me was a debt that kept me wise

Outro

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