Intro
Counter light buzzes yellow over Delroy's ledger book
Ninety days on every ticket, that's the only look
Verse
Ledger's full of names that trade their weight for rent
Mrs. Odom's ring came in the same week the roof bent
Told me "just till Friday," Friday turned to spring
She never called it back, left the velvet on the string
Trumpet from a kid named Chess, valve stuck with rust
Said his uncle blew it clean before the horn grew dust
Traded it for bail money, kept the mouthpiece though
Said "some part of the sound, man, I ain't ready to let go"
I stamp the ticket, drop it in the drawer with the rest
Ninety days of waiting is the neighborhood's stress test
Work boots, size eleven, sole worn thin as paper
Man named Curtis pawned them for his daughter's diaper
Came back with the cash before the sun went down
Bought them back at double, called it holding ground
I keep the drawer alphabetized by what they couldn't keep
Every tag's a heartbeat that got traded off for sleep
Hook
This is the currency we bleed for
Every ticket got a story underneath the door
Ninety days to buy it, love left on the floor
This is the currency we bleed for
Verse
My father ran this counter forty years on Baldwin Street
Said the safe don't judge you, it just counts the heat
Taught me read a face before I read the item's worth
A cracked guitar meant somebody's rent came first
Old man Reyes pawned his medals from the war
Said "freedom's heavy, son, don't weigh what it's for"
I hung them on the wall instead of the shelf
Told him no charge, some things you don't sell yourself
Girl named Nadia brought her mother's wedding coat
Said the heat got shut off, needed cash to stay afloat
I gave her extra, wrote the ticket incomplete
Some debts in this shop don't need to be complete
Ninety days pass quiet like a held breath in December
Half the drawer stays full, the other half remembered
I lock up every night and count what's never claimed
Every unclaimed ticket got somebody else's name
Hook
This is the currency we bleed for
Every ticket got a story underneath the door
Ninety days to buy it, love left on the floor
This is the currency we bleed for
Bridge
Sometimes I think about selling the whole block's worth of pain
Melt it down to silver, see what's left to gain
But grief don't smelt like metal, it just sits and multiplies
So I keep the drawer open, let the unclaimed things stay tied
Delroy left the ledger when the sickness took his hand
Told me "keep it honest, son, that's the only brand"
Outro
Counter light still buzzes yellow, closing up at nine
Every name in that drawer is a debt I can't outshine
Currency we bleed for, it don't spend the same
But I keep the books open in the neighborhood's name
