Ravens Count the Corner (version 2)

Intro

Streetlight hums low, corner still asleep

Ravens on the wire, they don't blink, they don't sleep

Renny used to say the birds remember every name

Long after the block forgets who lit the flame

Verse 1

Eight years old on the stoop, counting cracks in the concrete

Ravens on the wire above, watching who moved on the street

Corner had a rhythm, a map I memorized

Three knocks meant it's clear, one whistle meant disguise

Uncle Renny ran the block like a deacon runs a church

Taught me how to read a face before it learned to search

Said the birds don't lie, son, they circle what's about to fall

Watch the ones that scatter first, they know before us all

Traded my recess for a walkie clipped inside my coat

Learned to count in silence, kept the numbers in my throat

Snow came down that March, buried half the block in white

Ravens never left though, held their post through the whole night

Renny caught a charge that spring, the count don't ever stop

Handed me his walkie like a crown built off a drop

I was ten years old and already knew the weight of watching

Corner keeps a ledger, and the ravens keep it honest

Hook

Ravens count the corner, mark who's next to fall

Perched above the hustle like they already know it all

I fed the block my youth and got a scar for every debt

Ravens count the corner, they ain't forgot us yet

Verse 2

Twenty-two and running numbers Renny used to run

Same four corners, different faces, same unfinished sum

Buried Marcus in July, buried Dre that same December

Learned the ground stays hungry, ravens help you remember

Momma prayed the rosary while I counted out the take

Told her every dollar bent was still a dollar I could break

Scar along my collarbone from a night I can't repeat

Taught me debts get paid in blood before they're paid in feet

Watched the young ones come up quick, sneakers barely broke in

Tried to warn them slow, but the corner don't speak soft to men

Every winter thinned the block, every summer filled it back

Ravens kept their numbers straight, never lost a single track

I got old before my time, ash-gray at twenty-nine

Still I kept the walkie charged, still I held the line

Renny came home gray and quiet, said the count feels different now

I said nothing's different, uncle, just louder ravens, same old vow

Hook

Ravens count the corner, mark who's next to fall

Perched above the hustle like they already know it all

I fed the block my youth and got a scar for every debt

Ravens count the corner, they ain't forgot us yet

Bridge

Kid showed up last winter, walkie clipped just like mine

Same hungry eyes I carried, same unfinished sign

I could've handed down the crown the way it came to me

Instead I told him run, boy, before the ravens count you free

Some men build a legend passing weight down like a name

I'll be the one who broke it, let the birds forget my flame

Outro

Ravens still line the wire when the corner goes to rest

Counting empty spaces where a hundred names used to press