Ledger Don't Lie 3

Verse

Ledger book with my mother's hand

Entries folded soft as paper skin

Six figures earned but still I keep it small

Pockets thin to prove the balance true within

Counting every hour not in numbers

Every door that opened when they said no

Corner store receipts from the same three years

Receipts for rent, for groceries, for kids at school

Nothing fancy, nothing flashy — just the proof

Proof that hustle can outlast any struggle's rule

Pre-Chorus

So why I still report it on a 1040

Why I still box it up and label what I've got

Is it pride or patience, saving for the day

When the world don't care about your keeping score

You keep it anyway

Chorus

Ledger don't lie, ledger keeps my name

Every dollar folded like a promise in the rain

I'm not chasing clout, I'm paying what I owe

Ledger keeps the truth that cash won't ever show

Verse 2

Six years of taxes filed with only one address

The apartment where my sister moved to get some space

Still I pay the utilities on a house she left behind

Not for gratitude, just for knowing how it feels to land

To own something that ain't borrowed, that's mine own dirt

A yard in Harlem where the same four trees have grown

I don't post about it — that's not my style

I just keep the receipts and let the interest compile

Pre-Chorus

So why I still report it on a 1040

Why I still box it up and label what I've got

Is it pride or patience, saving for the day

When the world don't care about your keeping score

You keep it anyway

Chorus

Ledger don't lie, ledger keeps my name

Every dollar folded like a promise in the rain

I'm not chasing clout, I'm paying what I owe

Ledger keeps the truth that cash won't ever show

Bridge

Some years it's just a dollar, sometimes it's a small windfall

Either way the book don't care — it's written when I fall

Not for anyone to read — for me to know myself

That the work was real before the money showed up on the shelf

Chorus

Ledger don't lie, ledger keeps my name

Every dollar folded like a promise in the rain

I'm not chasing clout, I'm paying what I owe

Ledger keeps the truth that cash won't ever show