Verse
Uncle kept six ravens in a cage on the tar roof
Fed them off the scraps before he left for the night shift
Said a hungry bird flies further than a fed one
Said the block don't forgive but the sky don't judge
I climbed up after him at eleven with a coffee can
Learned to read the wind off the way their feathers stand
He carved his tally on the wire, one line a week survived
Told me count in silence, boy, the loud ones don't stay alive
Pre-Chorus
Now the coop's still standing though the coop's half rust
Every gate he welded shut still holding up my trust
He's three years gone and the birds don't know his name
But they circle every morning like the sky remembers pain
Chorus
Ravens over the block, same time, same sky
Count the ones that made it by the ones that didn't fly
Ash still warm in the barrel where he burned the old maps
Long as the birds keep circling, somebody's keeping track
Verse
Sixteen and the roof access was locked with a new chain
Cut my palm on the latch, kept the scar for the pain
Fed the ravens anyway through a hole in the fence
Told myself if they trust me then the trust ain't spent
Corner boys below me swapping product for silence
I stayed up top counting wingbeats against the violence
Nobody taught them loyalty, they just never left
Stayed through every winter that took somebody's breath
Pre-Chorus
Now the block got new faces, new plates on the door
New kids climbing gates that my uncle built before
They don't know the ledger, don't know what the wire meant
But the birds still circle round the same tar tenement
Chorus
Ravens over the block, same time, same sky
Count the ones that made it by the ones that didn't fly
Ash still warm in the barrel where he burned the old maps
Long as the birds keep circling, somebody's keeping track
Bridge
I sold the coop last spring, kept one feather in a jar
Set it on the dashboard so it travels where I are
Some men leave a fortune, some men leave a name
He left me six black witnesses that never learned to blame
I feed strangers now the way he used to feed the flock
Every scar I carry is a key to some locked block
Chorus
Ravens over the block, same time, same sky
Count the ones that made it by the ones that didn't fly
Ash still warm in the barrel where he burned the old maps
Long as the birds keep circling, somebody's keeping track
