Ledger of Old Wounds (Version 2)

Intro

Steel gate rattles like a chain on a cell block door

Father's ledger under the register, ink gone brown

Some men count debts to collect what's fair

I count debts to keep the block still there

Verse

Corner store open when the whole block was closed

Extension cords and candlelight the only thing that glowed

Momma's rent was short, he wrote it in the book

Said pay me back in seasons, not by how the numbers look

Bullet grazed his shoulder in the winter of the strike

Kept the store open anyway, said the block don't sleep at night

Scar healed rough like asphalt cracked by frost

He never called it charity, just called it what it cost

I learned the trade at twelve, stacking cans by the door

Watched him mark a zero where a debt was owed before

Said forgiveness got a price and he paid it every night

Traded silver for the sorrow, kept the ledger outta sight

Riot came in ninety-one, torched the block to ember

Store still stood like a tooth the fire couldn't dismember

He rebuilt with his own hands, brick by broken brick

Said the wound's what makes the wall, the crack's what makes it stick

Chorus

Every debt I forgive is a scar that I keep

Every gate that I open costs a wound that runs deep

I don't need the interest, just the block still here

Ledger of old wounds, paid in blood not in fear

Verse

New landlord wants