Collateral Halo (Version 2)

Intro

Frontenac light still buzzes past three

Nobody clocks a halo till it bleeds

Verse

Frontenac corner, streetlamp cracked like a knuckle

Theo rode his bike wheels spinning through a puddle

I owed Manny sixty for a favor gone crooked

Manny sent a shooter, aim wasn't for the rookie

Theo pedaled through it, didn't see the sedan turning

I grabbed his collar, felt the metal skin burning

Bullet found my shoulder where the denim used to hang

Block start calling me a saint before the sirens rang

Momma pressed a towel, said don't tell them how it started

Told the cops it's random, kept the debt part guarded

Theo's mother hugged me, said you saved my only son

I just nodded slow, thinking 'bout the man I'd become

Scar healed jagged, shaped just like a question mark

Every time I flex it, feel the weight of where it sparked

They put my name on flyers, hero of the Frontenac line

But heroes don't get made from debts they left behind

Chorus

Call it a halo, they don't see the toll

Every bit of shine got a piece of my soul

Wear it like armor but it's borrowed, not owned

Collateral halo, and the interest still grows

Verse

Three years later Theo's taller than the fence line

Still waves at me sunrise, still thinks the debt's a myth line

Manny's out on parole now, sits outside the deli

Nods like water under bridges, but the water's never steady

Kids on Vance Street sketch my shoulder scar in chalk

Turned my worst mistake into a legend that can talk

I hand out jackets now, same as Manny used to

Try to break the chain before it passes to the youth too

Theo asked me straight up, why's your shoulder shaped like that