Ledger of Small Mercies (version 4)

Intro

Notebook corner torn, pages soft as skin

Every mercy that kept me breathing, I write it in

Not the debts in dollars, not the scores to settle

Just the times the world went easy when it could've been brutal

Verse 1

Sharpie mark on Ms. Odell's door, that's how she ran the rent

Said pay me Friday, wrote January, never asked where the money went

Barbershop on Fenwick, Ray cut my head for free

Said you got a interview tomorrow, this one's on me

Bus driver waved me on when my pocket came up dry

December wind cutting through my jacket, ain't say goodbye

Teacher slipped a five inside my binder, never said a word

Called it lost and found, but I knew she saw, I knew she heard

Pardo's ran a tab when my mother worked the night shift

Wrote my name in pencil, never once made me split it

Church basement Tuesdays, plate of rice nobody counted

Old man passed his coat down, said it fit him when he mounted

These the entries no one prints, no interest, no collections

Just a column full of grace, written off corrections

I was drowning half these winters, didn't know I had a rope

Turns out it was stitched from strangers I ain't know

Hook

I keep a ledger of small mercies

Every kindness that got me through it

Can't repay it, so I pass it

Ledger of small mercies, that's how we do it

Verse 2

Now I'm the one who marks the door, tell Danny pay me when he can

He's seventeen, his mother's sick, I remember where I stand

Cut a young boy's hair myself, no charge, told him clean it up

Told him hold his head up higher than the cup he think he's stuck in

Slipped a twenty in my nephew's coat, ain't say a single thing

Let him find it Monday morning like a small unplanned spring

But mercy ain't a muscle that stays strong without the practice

Some nights I locked the register, told myself it's just business

Watched a kid get turned away and didn't speak, ain't step up

Carried that one heavier than any debt I ever kept

That's the entry that I hate to write, the one in fading ink

The mercy that I held back on the night I chose not think

Ledger's got two columns, and I balance them the same

Every gift I gave don't cancel out the one I couldn't claim

Hook

I keep a ledger of small mercies

Every kindness that got me through it

Can't repay it, so I pass it

Ledger of small mercies, that's how we do it

Bridge

Found that kid again last winter, standing where I left him cold

Gave him what I owed him then, said the interest, it's on hold

He ain't say much, just nodded, walked off wearing my old coat

That's the closest thing to closing out a debt I ever wrote

Outro

Notebook's full now, corners torn, I'm starting up a new one

Same as Ms.