Intro
Composition notebook, spine cracked twice
Uncle Renny's handwriting still bleeding through the lines
Corner store don't take a card, so the debt gets penciled in
Verse
Uncle Renny left the book, said keep it honest, keep it locked
Every name that's in there owe some money or a knock
Ms. Odessa, three weeks late, but she fed me every Tuesday
So I cross her debt in silver, write it paid some other way
Dominic still owes since oh-nine, moved to Charlotte, ghost
But his mother still on Ellery, so the balance stay close
I don't chase it with my hands, I just chase it with my eyes
Watch who nods too fast, who won't look at you when they lie
Corner store got closed accounts stacked like a filing cabinet
Every column got a story, every number got a habit
Marcus paid it back in favors, fixed my cousin's Honda brakes
Some folks pay it back in silence, some in whatever it takes
I inherited the weight before I learned to spell my name
Learned that debt ain't only money, debt is memory and shame
Every eviction, every funeral, every borrowed twenty spot
Living in the margins of a book that never got forgot
Hook
I keep the ledger, block don't forget
Every favor, every dollar, every debt
Pencil marks don't fade like people do
I'm the only proof that some of this was true
Verse
New landlord came around, said he'd buy the book off me
Offered me a stack of twenties, told him keep your fee
He don't know Odessa's silver crossed out ain't erased, just healed
He want the names so he can price the block by what's revealed
Sat with that offer three nights, kitchen light still humming
Weighed what I'd lose in trust against the money coming
My cousin said just sell it, page don't feed you, cash does
Told him some things ain't for sale, that's just how the math was
Copied every entry into three more books that same week
Hid one in the ceiling tile, one behind the bathroom sink
Third one stayed in my back pocket, spine cracked, ink gone thin
Cause if the block gets sold from under, memory still win
Odessa passed last winter, debt still marked in silver ink
Didn't cross it fully, left a corner so I think
Of how she always overpaid me back in what she had
Ledger ain't just numbers, it's the proof that we were glad
Hook
I keep the ledger, block don't forget
Every favor, every dollar, every debt
Pencil marks don't fade like people do
I'm the only proof that some of this was true
Bridge
One day the pencil's gonna shake too much to write
Some kid on Ellery inherit what I kept upright
I ain't scared of dying broke, I'm scared the names erase
Cause losing debt means losing every face that debt replaced
Renny's in there still, his entry never closed
Some things you don't pay off, you just carry as you grow
Outro
Composition notebook, spine cracked three times now
Block don't forget, long as somebody keeps the vow
I keep the ledger
