Receipts From the Block (version 2)

Intro

Corner store on Belmar closed in oh-nine

Paper bag still smell like bread and dime

I got the ledger book, cracked spine, ink gone blue

Every name in that book still owe me something true

Verse

Mr. Odom ran that store on credit and trust

Chalk mark on the counter turned to ledger dust

He'd float you eggs and bacon till the check came through

Wrote your name in pencil, said the paper's proof

My mama's name in there eleven times in one July

Sixty cents of milk beside a crossed-out sigh

He never asked for interest, just for you to come back right

Pay when the light bill's paid, pay before the light

Store closed down the week his hip gave out

Nephew sold the building, threw the ledger in a drought

Of moving boxes, dumpster by the loading dock

I pulled it out at midnight, wiped it, kept the block

Now I got the names, half of them still round here

Working nights, raising kids, drowning in the same fear

I ain't collecting debts, I'm collecting what he gave

Gonna square it different — pay it forward past the grave

Chorus

Got receipts from the block, every name accounted for

Every kindness got a number, every debt keeps score

I ain't cashing nothing, just remembering what it's for

Got receipts from the block, and the block remembers more

Verse

Took the ledger to the print shop, made a hundred copies clean

Handed one to every name still living on the scene

Told them what they owed was owed already, paid in full

By a man who kept the lights on when the system pulled

Some of them cried, some just nodded, put it in their coat

Said they didn't know Odom kept a paper note

That's the thing about the debt that don't show up in a bank

It just sits there, quiet, waiting till you say the thanks

I bought the corner lot back, renamed it after him

Put a bench outside, a mailbox, painted trim

Kids do homework on that bench now, don't know why it's there

I know — it's forty years of eggs and borrowed prayer

I keep the ledger in a drawer beneath my bed

Read a page some nights before I close my head

Every debt's a story if you read it right

Every crossed-out name's a light that stayed lit despite

Chorus

Got receipts from the block, every name accounted for

Every kindness got a number, every debt keeps score

I ain't cashing nothing, just remembering what it's for

Got receipts from the block, and the block remembers more

Bridge

Funny how a debt can turn to gratitude

Once you stop keeping score and start keeping the truth

Odom never asked me once to pay him what I owe

He just asked I keep the book, so somebody would know

Outro

Ledger's on the shelf now, cover worn and cracked

Every name inside it — paid, and paid me back