Blocks We Buried

Intro

Denmore Street, before the dust, before the signs

Fourteen stoops in a row, fourteen versions of mine

Ms. Coraline's radio through the screen door at nine

This is the sound of a block getting redefined

Verse

Denmore Street had fourteen stoops and I knew every crack

Counted them walking home when the block had my back

Ms. Coraline's rail, I'd hang there past dark

Wrecking ball came in autumn, left a permanent mark

They said the pipes were rotten, said the roofs caved with rust

Bulldozed the whole row, turned Denmore into dust

I watched from the fence line, brick dust on my tongue

Thirty years of Sundays crushed before the day was done

They poured new concrete quick, called it something with "Court"

Sold the units for prices no cousin could afford

Buried the foundation stones six feet where they stood

Buried Ms. Coraline's porch under somebody's hood

I kept a brick in my pocket, chip off the front step

Carry it like a compass, measure every debt

Cause the ground don't forget even when the map does

Blocks we buried still got roots where the sidewalk was

Chorus

We buried the block, not the love that it gave

Concrete forgets but the corner remembers your name

Steady like a heartbeat under new streets

Blocks we buried still breathing under my feet

Verse

Fast forward five years, I'm walking Meridian Court

Doorman don't know that my whole childhood's under the floor

Kids on scooters roll where the hopscotch chalk used to be

Nobody tell them what's buried beneath what they see

I got a job doing landscaping, planting trees for the new

Dug six inches down, hit a foundation I knew

Called my mother that night, said mama guess what I found

She said that's the old stairwell, that's sacred ground

I didn't tell my boss, just covered it back with the dirt

Some things you keep quiet so the healing don't hurt

Renny still lives three blocks out, refused every offer

Says his father's name is carved where the buyers won't bother

I get it now, loyalty ain't about where you stay

It's about what you carry when they pave it away

I keep that brick heavier now than the day that I took it

Cause the weight of a memory's the only way I could've woke up

Chorus

We buried the block, not the love that it gave

Concrete forgets but the corner remembers your name

Steady like a heartbeat under new streets

Blocks we buried still breathing under my feet

Bridge

I planted an oak where the old porch light used to hang

No plaque, no name, just roots doing what roots do again

Told my daughter one day this dirt got a story to tell

Said you can't unbury what already know you so well

I