Scars in the Same Key

Verse 1

Odell's chair got a squeak like a rusted hinge

Radio dial stuck on the same station since

Nineteen-eighty-something, static holds the tune

My father's eyebrow scar catches light from the noon

He got it defending his brother off Tillman Ave

Fist came sideways, he still walked home, didn't wave

I used to trace it with my thumb when I was six

Ask him how it healed, he'd just flick his wrist

Some things don't heal, they just learn to sit right

Odell nodded slow, kept the clippers on light

Said your daddy's blood sings a note you can't erase

Same pitch, same pain, different year, same face

Pre-Chorus

So do we carry the wound or the way it's worn

Same crack in the mirror since before we were born

I'm asking the chair, I'm asking the glass

Does the song stay the same when the moment's passed

Chorus

Scars in the same key, father's cut runs through me

Different street, same beat, still it comes back to me

We don't heal the same way, but we hum the same tone

Scars in the same key, but I'm singing it grown

Verse 2

Seventeen, corner store, watched Marcus get jumped

Three of them circling, I couldn't just stay slumped

Caught one high on the brow, felt the skin split wide

Same exact spot my father's got on his side

Blood ran warm, tasted iron behind my teeth

Marcus said run, I said nah, we walk underneath

The same streetlight that watched my father bleed

Odell stitched it rough, said boy that's the family creed

Not the fighting, the choosing, the standing your ground

Some scars get passed like a hand-me-down gown

I looked in the mirror, saw two faces stacked

My father's outline underneath my own crack

Pre-Chorus

So do we carry the wound or the way it's worn

Same crack in the mirror since before we were born

I'm asking the chair, I'm asking the glass

Does the song stay the same when the moment's passed

Chorus

Scars in the same key, father's cut runs through me

Different street, same beat, still it comes back to me

We don't heal the same way, but we hum the same tone

Scars in the same key, but I'm singing it grown

Bridge

But I got a son now, four years old, quiet eyes

Watching me shave close, watching how a man tries

I ain't handing him a reason to bleed for pride

Gonna teach him the tune without the knife inside

Same key don't mean the same key gets played

The note can bend soft if the hand ain't afraid

I'll be the verse that finally shifts the chord

Still in the family, just a different record

Chorus

Scars in the same key, father's cut runs through me

Different street, same beat, still it comes back to me

We don't heal the same way, but we hum the same tone

Scars in the same key, but I'm singing it grown