Corner Store Confessions (version 2)

Intro

Tin bell rings, door creaks open slow

Ledger sitting heavy where the register used to glow

Every name in pencil, every promise underlined

This the corner store confession where the block leaves its mind

Verse

Bell on the door make a tin bell hum

Renny's ledger book older than my mama's thumb

Pencil marks in columns, names spelled out in lead

Bread today, pay Friday, that's the vow instead

I was seven, sent for milk with a crumpled dollar bill

Renny waved it off, said tell your mother it's still

On the books, on the house, till the check comes through

Watched him write her name where the ink was worn and blue

Learned the weight of trust before I learned to tie my shoe

Corner store on Ashford, block's whole résumé in view

Every name a story, every debt a scene

Mrs. Cole for cough drops, Uncle Ray for kerosene

Nobody signs a contract, nobody needs a pen

Just a nod, a promise, paid back now and then

I used to think it's charity, now I know it's code

Corner store the only bank that never called the load

Chorus

Corner store confessions, every name in pencil lead

Renny keeps the tally, keeps it honest, keeps it fed

We pay what we can, when we can, that's the creed

Corner store confessions, that's the only church we need

Verse

Sixteen years later I'm the one behind the crate

Renny's hands too stiff to hold the ledger straight

Handed me the pencil like he's handing me a name

Told me the columns don't lie but the people might complain

Dante's mama came in shaking, insulin price gone up again

Forty short, praying silent, holding back an amen

I wrote her down myself, cosigned it with my hand

Told Renny I got this one, he just nodded, understand

That's the thing about the tally, it ain't only money owed

It's who shows up in winter when the heat bill overflowed

Dante paid it back in August, cutting grass on Wooten street

Brought the forty folded neat, set it soft beneath the sheet

Some debts get repaid in seasons, some in favors, some in tears

I've seen both kinds circle back around for years

Ledger's just a mirror for the love the