Intro
Denby Ave, four flights, the buzzer's dead again
Uncle Rey's key ring still rattling like amen
Verse
I learned to pick a lock before I learned to shave
Uncle Rey ran the building, taught me how to behave
Rent's due the first, heat go out the third
I'm the one they call when the landlord don't return a word
Radiator hissed steam, caught my wrist at seventeen
Skin came up white then pink, wore it like a badge unseen
Mrs. Alvarez's window cracked from the cold snap
Taped it up with cardboard, called it a stopgap
Papers on the door in red, thirty days to pack
I know every family's story, every crack in the drywall track
They call me super but I ain't got no super power
Just a screwdriver, some patience, one more borrowed hour
Scar on my palm from a busted pipe in 4B
Every mark's a memory, ain't nobody give it to me free
I carry it different, don't let it turn to stone
Learned the weight of keeping people in their home
Chorus
Scars I carry light
I don't let 'em cost me sleep at night
Every one's a door I opened wide
Scars I carry light
Verse
Landlord Grissom slid an envelope, thin and slick
Said just report who's late, I'll cut you into it
Six hundred to snitch on the family in 2C
Told him keep his money, that ain't currency to me
Larry lost his job, three months behind on rent
Patched his ceiling free, didn't ask where the money went
Tried to buy my silence like it's cheap as drywall dust
Traded my uncle's name for a check — I said not us
Block watched me turn it down, word spread down the stairs
Old Ms. Fenton brought me soup, said she's saying prayers
Grissom brought a new guy, called him efficient, cold
Kicked out 3B in winter, wouldn't wait for the cold to fold
Stood on the stoop while they carried out the crib
Held the door for the mattress, felt it press against my rib
Ain't no scar for that day, just a weight I still tote
Wrote her new address down on a napkin, folded like a note
Chorus
Scars I carry light
I don't let 'em cost me sleep at night
Every one's a door I opened wide
Scars I carry light
Bridge
Some nights I want to leave this block, get my own key cut
Somewhere the radiator don't bite, somewhere the doors don't rust
But then I think of Uncle Rey, gone now, ring still warm
Every super that quit made the vultures form
So I stay, teach a kid named Dre the trade
Show him how a busted lock gets saved, not laid to blade
Told him scars ain't debts you drown in, they're the proof you stood
Told him carry light, not heavy — that's the neighborhood
Outro
Denby Ave still standing, ring of keys still mine
Every scar I got's a light I leave behind
