Corner Store Communion (version 2)

Intro

Bell above the door cracked, still rings off-key

Pop Odell keep a ledger where the numbers disagree

Spiral notebook, pencil marks, no interest, no decree

That's the only bank that ever kept its word with me

Verse

Corner of Ninth and Miller, fluorescent light half dead

Milk crate for a stool where the old heads play instead

Pop Odell wipe the counter with a rag gone gray as ash

Write your name in pencil when you short a little cash

Bread today, paid Friday, that's the only rule they run

Never charge you interest, only ask you don't run

I was twelve when I wrote my mother's debt myself

Watched him cross it off in April, shelved it with the rest

Every name inside that ledger got a story to it

Some erased in graphite, some just faded till you knew it

Cigarettes for Uncle Ray, aspirin for Miss Fontaine

Diaper money, light bill money, all writ down the same

He don't judge the columns, only judge if you come back

Half the block owe something, but the trust it never crack

Used to think it's charity, now I know it's more

It's the only church on Miller Street that never locks the door

Chorus

Corner store communion, pencil on the wall

Credit in the ledger when the cash won't fall

Pop Odell keep the faith when nobody call

Corner store communion feed us through it all

Verse

Junior got j