Weight of a Corner Block

Intro

Rent came due on the third, utilities before the food

Momma's shift at the hospital ran long, left the stove on, left the lights loose

Third floor hallway smells like Pine-Sol and old decisions

Every wall in this building got somebody's name pressed in it

Verse 1

Twenty-two, still counting change in a jar by the window

Landlord knocks different when the check's late, sound carries through the drywall

My little sister asking questions I ain't got the answers to

Mouth to feed, mouth to keep quiet, both of them got a weight to 'em

Saw Tommy take a package down to Essex Avenue at dawn

Came back with a roll, came back different, didn't come back home

Told me the money was easy, told me the fear was the price

I kept my hands in my pockets, kept my eyes on the price

Momma working doubles, Momma's back bent like the question mark

I became the question mark, standing in the stairwell after dark

Watching money move like water through the neighborhood's cracked hands

Watching people choose between their hunger and their conscience

Chorus

This block's got a weight that don't lift

Choices made in the dark, they don't drift

You carry them stone-heavy, stone-still

This block's got a weight and it will

Verse 2

Pockets heavy, conscience heavier, the scales don't balance right

Thirty dollars in my account, thirty thousand passing by at night

Saw my reflection in the bodega window, didn't recognize the face

Hadn't slept in seventy-two hours, hunger got a taste

My boy Dev got caught up moving weight, now he's upstate

Momma visit him on Saturdays, bring him news about the gates

He wrote me a letter, said the time is thick in here like tar

Said he don't remember what the sky looked like from this far

I remember Dev at thirteen, stealing gum from the corner mart

Laughing when the owner let him go, said he knew his heart

Now his heart's locked up in a cell and I'm still out here

Making moves to keep the lights on, making moves to disappear

Chorus

This block's got a weight that don't lift

Choices made in the dark, they don't drift

You carry them stone-heavy, stone-still

This block's got a weight and it will

Bridge

Been three years since I turned down the package

Momma finally got insurance, got the down payment

But I still taste the copper from the nights I almost didn't

Still hear Dev's voice like it's coming through the prison phone line

The block don't care what you chose once you close your eyes

It just keeps asking, keeps knocking, keeps the pressure inside

Verse 3

Got a job at the warehouse now, moving boxes, moving time

Sixty hours a week keeps the rent paid, keeps the need confined

Momma's sleeping better, got a mattress that ain't springs

Got a future that ain't written in the corner stone yet

Dev getting out next summer, wrote me said he learned a trade

Said he's done with Essex Avenue, done with running shade

But the block's still there, still breathing, still collecting names