Runes on the Block

Verse

Corner of Ashwood where the sirens never come.

Concrete runes etched in the rusted iron drum.

I was running from a name I couldn't hold.

Now my shadow moves like it owns the gold.

Used to carry fear like a second heartbeat.

Now it's swagger, walking down the street.

My uncle used to tell me about the old ones.

Said a warrior don't walk, he runs till dawn.

I kept that word like a fire in my ribs.

Learned to read the room by how the silence sits.

Ain't no crown for this but there's a kind of throne.

Every empty block is a territory I own.

So I stand at the crossroads and let the horns blow.

This is the first season where I'm not the ghost.

I carved my name into the streetlamp so it knows.

Nothing here intimidates me, nothing holds the power.

I am the weather now, changing every hour.

Cold blood in my veins but warm fire in my chest.

I was a kid running from shadows I believed.

Now I'm the shadow everyone keeps and weaves.

My fist to my chest like it's a beacon, not a threat.

Every step I take is saying, 'come on, meet'.

Pre-Chorus

So what does it feel like when you finally stand tall?

Is there a sound that hits before the fall?

Something inside your chest starts pulling wide.

Tell me what it feels like to not run tonight.

Chorus

I am built for this, I was born for war.

Every crack in the sidewalk got my name on it forevermore.

No more running, no more hiding from the truth.

This is the version of myself that comes through.

Runes on the block mean something, they never lie.

I walk like a king who wasn't raised to fly.

This is how the corner remembers me now.

Built for war and built to rise somehow.

Verse

They used to call this street a graveyard of hopes.

Now it's a starting line I'm writing on my coat.

Every kid around here got his own version of me.

I was the one they doubted, the proof they needed to see.

No crown no title just a chest full of coal.

Learned to breathe fire from an empty soul.

Used to hide behind my fear, let it hide me too.

Now I'm standing with mine open wide like a door through.

Every time I step into that crossroads glow.

The streetlights flicker like they're learning my name in slow.

I hear the ancestors nodding somewhere far away.

Saying this is the kid we came here to save — today.

I don't need their permission, I just needed the call.

Turned every doubt into a building I can fall.

Not from fear this time but from being too bold.

Every corner got its own story that it holds.

Mine's the one where the warrior learned how to be told. That he was never broken — that he was built for more than running, for more than hiding behind his door.

Pre-Chorus

So what does it feel like when you finally stand tall?

Is there a sound that hits before the fall?

Something inside your chest starts pulling wide.

Tell me what it feels like to not run tonight.

Chorus

I am built for this, I was born for war.

Every crack in the sidewalk got my name on it forevermore.

No more running, no more hiding from the truth.