Scars in Increments

Intro

Delmont Scrapyard hums at five before the sun

Copper wire cuts clean, teaches you what silence costs

Verse

Forklift key in my palm, thermos cold as a stone

Brother's tuition due, so I clocked in alone

Chain-link fence rusted orange, gate don't ever lock right

Sorted scrap till my hands looked like a roadmap at midnight

First cut came from steel coil, thin as a whisper

Bled through my glove, kept working, didn't dare miss a

Shift 'cause the check was short and the letter said final

I taped up the wound with a Sharpie line to mark the timeline

Told my moms it's nothing, told my brother go to class

Every wire I stripped bought another semester to pass

Foreman named Otis said kid you healing wrong

Said scars tell the truth even when your mouth stays strong

I started counting marks like a ledger on my wrist

Each one dated small, so I never could forget the list

Not for sympathy, not to wear it like a crown

Just proof I stood up every time the weight came down

Chorus

Every scar's a payment, small and slow

Nothing's free, that's how the ledger goes

I keep the receipts written under my skin

Scars in increments, that's how I win

Verse

Two years deep, my brother graduated in the spring

Sat front row in a shirt still smelling like the scrap bin

He don't know the coil that opened up my forearm

Bought the cap and gown, kept the family calm

Otis retired that fall, left me the forklift key

Said the yard remembers everyone who bled honestly

New kid named Reggie started, sixteen, hands still soft

I showed him how to wrap a cut before it costs him more

Told him don't let the scar turn into a story you sell

Let it be quiet, let it just heal itself

He asked me why I stayed when the pay never climbed

I said loyalty's a debt you settle one scar at a time

Some nights the metal dust looks like snow under the light

Some nights I trace the marks and remember every fight

Not with a fist, just with the hours, just with the cold

Every increment's a version of the man I used to hold

Bridge

Moms asked to see my hands last Sunday at the table

I opened them up slow, said this is why we're stable

She traced the lines like she was reading something sacred

Said son you didn't have to bleed to prove you're patient

I said some debts don't take checks, some take skin

Every scar's a receipt for a version I let win

Outro

Delmont Scrapyard still hums past the break of light

Ledger's getting shorter, scars still healing right

Nothing's free, that's how the ledger goes

Scars in increments, that's how I know