Corner Store Sermon (Version 2)

Intro

Bell on the door got a crack in the chime,

Ruiz keeps the ledger where the whole block's secrets hide.

Verse

Bell on the door got a crack in the chime,

Ruiz behind the counter, Sharpie keeping time.

Milk crate for a chair, lottery wall peeling,

Fluorescent bulb flickering, giving the whole block feeling.

I was ten with a dollar short for bread and eggs,

He wrote my name in the spiral, said pay me when you can, kid, don't beg.

Page forty-three, still got my mother's tab from the flood year,

Ruiz never asked, just refilled the shelf, kept the lights clear.

Learned the rules quick, the book don't lie, don't forget,

Every soul on that block got a number, a name, and a debt.

Old heads on the stoop trading stories for shade,

Watch who walks in, watch who walks out, watch how the tab's made.

Ruiz says trust is a loan with the interest in silence,

Says it plain while he's stacking the chips in defiance.

I nodded then, thought I understood the whole thing,

Didn't know how heavy one page in that book could bring.

Chorus

Corner store sermon, same every day,

Credit's a promise, a promise gotta pay.

Ruiz don't judge you, just writes what he sees,

Pay what you owe, or you pay with your peace.

Verse

My cousin Dre came back from upstate thin and quiet,

Asked Ruiz for a tab, Ruiz looked at me to buy it.

I said put it on my name, felt like handing him a key,

Watched the numbers climb like the register was hungry.

Two weeks turned to five, the chips turned to cases,

Dre's eyes getting darker, matching the corner's shaded faces.

Told him slow down, man, that page is getting long,

He said family don't count, hummed it like a song.

I believed him 'cause I wanted to, that's the trouble with blood,

Ledger don't care what you're wanting, only what's owed in the flood.

Ruiz never pressed, just watched us both close,

Said a name on a page is a promise wearing borrowed clothes.