Rent Money Sermon (Version 2)

Intro

Fourth floor walk-up, radiator clanks like a gong

First of the month hit different, everybody scramble along

Verse

Sharpie envelopes stacked, momma's handwriting strong

She'd send me down the hall with the numbers all wrote

Knock twice, whisper the rent, hold the tension like smoke

Mr. Odell counted quarters on a shoebox lid

Told me money's a language, learn it early as a kid

Super named Delroy, ledger thick as a bible

Marked the paid in blue ink, marked the owed in red trial

I was ten years old doing math in a stairwell

Carrying envelopes heavier than what they can tell

Some nights came back light, had to say it with my chest

She's a little short this month, watched his face, held my breath

Delroy never yelled, just wrote a note in the margin

Said the building stands together or the building starts sinking

That's the first sermon I learned before I learned to pray

Every first of the month it's the same ritual, same weigh

Chorus

Rent money sermon, preach it every first

Empty pockets, full hearts, we cover every hurt

Nobody's free until the whole floor's paid

Rent money sermon, that's the deal we made

Verse

Twenty years later, I'm the one with the ledger book

Same building, same stairwell, different kind of look

Miss Odell's still there, slower now with her keys

I carry her groceries up, four flights, bad knees

First of the month, I'm knocking doors with my own hand

Envelope for envelope, I understand the demand

Marcus on the third floor lost his job in July

Slipped him twenty extra, told him don't ask why

That's the sermon working through me, passed down like a coat

Delroy's in a home now, but his ledger's still my code

Space heater humming while the numbers get counted twice

Every dollar short is a decision, every dollar right

Some months I go without so the building stays whole

That's not weakness, that's the interest on a soul

I learned it in that stairwell, I still live it today

Rent money sermon, I still preach it, still pay

Chorus

Rent money sermon, preach it every first

Empty pockets, full hearts, we cover every hurt

Nobody's free until the whole floor's paid

Rent money sermon, that's the deal we made

Bridge

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