Weight of a Corner Store Receipt (version 2)

Intro

Yeah, yeah

Corner arithmetic

Yeah

Verse 1

Walked in Tuesday morning, fluorescent hum and cold tile

Mrs. Chen behind the counter with that half-smile

Bought a loaf, bought some eggs, bought time I didn't have

She rang it up, wrote the total on a paper bag

Thirty-two seventy-three, I knew the math was tight

Had a twenty-six on me, told her I'd be right

Back tomorrow with the rest—that was three months ago

Now I'm watching how she watches, how she lets it go

She don't ask about the debt, just nods when I walk in

Stock the shelves on Saturday, that's how I'm paying thin

Every item that I touch got a number on my spine

Every number got a name, and that name is mine

Mrs. Chen, she keep a ledger but she don't let it show

Corner store economics—that's the only thing I know

Pre-Chorus

What you owe is what you are

What you owe is what you are

Chorus

I'm still paying for the trust

Every dollar is a must

Corner keep the score, I keep walking through the door

Weight of what I owe, it never gets old

Weight of what I owe, it never gets old

Verse 2

Fifteen now, I'm stocking, I'm mopping, I'm moving fast

She trust me with the register, I don't ask why she ask

Brother got arrested Thursday, needed bail by nine

I stepped up with the deposit, used the till line

Mrs. Chen, she didn't blink, just handed me the key

Said the store been here thirty years, blood run deep as trees

Paid it back in double shifts, in inventory and sweat

Now I'm learning how to carry what I can't forget

She teach me more than math—how to honor what you owe

How a ledger is a letter written long and slow

How a corner store is church when the church doors close

How a debt can be a bridge if you walk it, God knows

Pre-Chorus

What you owe is what you are

What you owe is what you are

Chorus

I'm still paying for the trust

Every dollar is a must

Corner keep the score, I keep walking through the door

Weight of what I owe, it never gets old

Weight of what I owe, it never gets old

Bridge

Now I'm grown, I own a piece of this place

She passed the keys, said kid, you earned the grace

I renamed the ledger, changed it to a book

Every name in there, I take one long look

Red line for the paid, blue line for the kin

That's my mother's rule, that's where I begin

Verse 3

Got a boy come in here now, shoes worn at the heel

Tells me that his mama sick, he need a meal

I write his name in blue, tell him come back when he can

That's the weight of a receipt, that's the weight of a man

Mrs. Chen she sitting in the corner of my mind

Every penny that I moved got a purpose and a rhyme

Not a burden, not a burden—it's a compass and a map

Showing where I came from and the way I'm coming back

Outro

Corner arithmetic

Yeah, yeah

I still keep the receipt

Yeah