Concrete Halo (Version 4)

Verse

Fourth floor, tar roof, wire mesh built by hand

Uncle Renny showed me how the coop's supposed to stand

Six a.m. feed run before the school bell rings

Corn in my palm, dust on my sneakers, flutter of wings

Block below is loud, sirens braid into the heat

But up here the only static's feathers and feet

Guys on the stoop swear the roof's just wasted space

I say it's the one thing round here holding its shape

Pre-Chorus

How you stay clean when the whole street's asking for your hands

How you build something that circles back and understands

Chorus

Concrete halo, ringing over the noise

Same block raised it, same block gave it a voice

I keep it steady, I keep it whole

Concrete halo hanging over my soul

Verse

Dre got knocked, county upstate, six-year bid

Told me watch his birds like watch the son he never did

Landlord offered cash to clear the roof for antennas

I turned him down twice, kept the coop like a promise remembers

Winter came hard, water froze inside the trough

I broke ice with my knuckles till the skin came off

Some loyalty's loud, some just shows up and stays

Mine's a latch I check the same time every day

Pre-Chorus

How you stay right when the pressure's paying better than the truth

How you build something that still comes home to the roof

Chorus

Concrete halo, ringing over the noise

Same block raised it, same block gave it a voice

I keep it steady, I keep it whole

Concrete halo hanging over my soul

Bridge

Storm hit hard one August, blew the mesh clean off the frame

I stood there soaked, thinking maybe I'm the one to blame

Then I saw them circling, twenty birds against the gray

Came back to a broken coop 'cause home don't wash away

That's the only lesson this roof ever had to give

Ring might bend, ring might rust, but the ring's how you live

Chorus

Concrete halo, ringing over the noise

Same block raised it, same block gave it a voice

I keep it steady, I keep it whole

Concrete halo hanging over my soul