Weight I Learned to Carry

Intro

Brass shavings dust the counter, uncle's grinder still humming

Left me the bench and the key ring, said the weight keeps you honest

Verse

Fourth blank today, teeth cut deep and even

Mrs. Alvarez lost hers third time, still I believe her

Cut it for nothing, mark the ledger in pencil not ink

Every duplicate's a promise nobody stops to think

Deshawn needs one for his mother's new door on Willet

Vending machine's broke out front, I still keep it filled

Uncle Reuel ran this bench forty years, never asked why

Said a key's just trust you hold up to the light

Peg board on the wall, names written small in the corner

Half the block's front doors hanging off my shoulder

Ring gets heavier every spring somebody moves

Every couple gone, I'm the one who removes

Their tag from the board, cuts a fresh one clean

Starts a new file, same name of machine

Doing this since twenty-two, no diploma, no degree

Just brass dust in my lungs and the block's trust in me

Chorus

This the weight I learned to carry

Not a burden, just a duty

Every key a life I'm holding

This the weight I learned to carry

Verse

Man came in Tuesday, said he lost his key to unit four

But unit four's the Ochoas, and he don't live there no more

Said his girl still got his things, just needs to grab his coat

Heard the real story from the block before he even spoke

Restraining order filed in March, I seen the paper posted

Told him no, watched his face go from asking to roasted

Said "you owe me, cut it, I know your uncle well"

Told him my uncle taught me better than to open up a cell

Back into a house he got no business walking through

He left cursing, kicked the gate, said I'd regret what I do

Three nights I slept with the shop chained double, tight

Watched the corner camera blink through the same gray light

Nothing came of it but the fear stayed lodged like splinter

Some keys you don't cut, that's the weight of the winter

Turned away the money, turned away a grown man's temper

Learned that saying no gets written in the ledger

Chorus

This the weight I learned to carry

Not a burden, just a duty

Every key a life I'm holding

This the weight I learned to carry

Bridge

Truth