Weight of the Block (Version 4)

Intro

Twelve keys on one ring, cold against my thigh

Every lock on this block got a reason why

Verse

Twelve keys on a ring, wore a groove in my jeans

Every lock on the block got a story between

Duante's scale reads true, he won't touch it for nobody

Weighed my granny's rice back in ninety, kept it steady

I'm the one they call when the landlord change the latch

Hold the spare for Miss Coral case her nephew come to snatch

Chalk marks on the wall behind the laundromat door

Names of who still owe, erased when they square the score

Shoebox full of IOUs, rubber band gone brittle

Ten dollars here, twenty there, math that keeps me little

Nobody thanks the vault, they just knock when they need it

I learned to hold my face still even when I'm bleeding

Marcus borrowed the key to his mama's old apartment

Said he'd bring it back Tuesday, left town without a comment

Now I'm explaining to the new tenant why the lock won't turn

Weight ain't the steel, it's the trust I gotta relearn

Chorus

I hold the weight of the block

Every key, every debt, every lock

Nobody sees what it cost

I carry it so it ain't lost

Verse

Ten years running this, my knuckles know the metal

Every scar on this hand got a name and a settle

Cut it opening Miss Coral's gate the winter it rusted

Kept the blood off the mail so her heart wouldn't get busted

They pay me back in stories, in casseroles, in nods

Currency that don't spend but it's heavier than gods

Marcus came back broke, asked me to vouch him again

Told the landlord he changed, put my own name on the pen

Second week he's gone with the deposit and the spare

Now Miss Coral's asking why the trust just disappear

I ain't mad at Marcus, I'm mad at the math I ignored

Loyalty's a loan too, I already paid that cost before

Still I keep the ring heavy, still I answer every knock

Cause somebody gotta anchor when the water hit the block

Scar tissue thick as a testimony on my palm

Every callus is a chapter, every fix a psalm

Chorus

I hold the weight of the block

Every key, every debt, every lock

Nobody sees what it cost

I carry it so it ain't lost

Bridge

Some nights I count the keys and wonder who counts me

If I dropped the ring tomorrow would the block still see

Rosario says put it down, let somebody else hold weight

But the phone still rings at midnight and I'm still at the gate

Maybe that's the debt I chose, maybe that's the deal

You don't get to set it down when everybody knows it's real

Outro

Twelve keys, one ring, one name they trust

I'll set it down when this whole block turns to dust

Till then I answer, till then I stay

The weight's the price of never walking away