Scars You Can Spend

Intro

Sharpie tally on the mirror, half rubbed thin

Uncle Rok said every scar gets you back in

No cash today, boy, show me where you been

That's the toll on this door, that's how we let you in

Verse 1

Fourteen years old, knuckle split on a fence rail

Held the gate shut while my brother made the mail

Blood on my hoodie sleeve, mama sewed the tear

Uncle Rok saw the mark, said that's a year of your fare

Chalked it on the mirror next to Reggie's burn scar

Reggie caught a graze just walking home from the yard

We don't trade in dollars, dollars leave the block by June

Scars stay put, they vouch for you under any moon

Barber chair's a bank, straight razor is the teller

Every nick you kept quiet makes your credit realer

Paid for my first cut with a story 'bout the fire

Told 'em how I pulled Miss Tanya's cat off the wire

Palm still got the burn, pink like a stamp

That's the receipt they check when the lights go damp

Some kids flash sneakers, we flash where we been broke

Currency of surviving, and it's never a joke

Chorus

Scars you can spend, round here that's the rate

Every cut on my arms paid a debt, closed a gate

Don't need paper when your body keeps the weight

Scars you can spend, that's how we calculate

Verse 2

Ten years later I'm the one behind the chair

Watching new kids come in trying to build a fare

Kevin drew a scar with a marker on his wrist

Thought a fake receipt could get him on the list

Uncle Rok just laughed, said ink don't hold the weight

Only real blood remembers the exact date

I remember when Reggie's tab ran short one winter

Cold got in the shop, nobody had a splinter

So we split our stories, doubled up the credit

Loyalty's the only thing round here that's ever steady

Denim jacket on the hook still smells like smoke

From the night we pulled Marcus out before the wire broke

That scar's on my forearm, silver like a wire

Paid off half the shop's rent when the roof caught fire

See, the currency of trust don't inflate or fold

Every mark's a promise that already got told

Chorus

Scars you can spend, round here that's the rate

Every cut on my arms paid a debt, closed a gate

Don't need paper when your body keeps the weight

Scars you can spend, that's how we calculate

Bridge

Some nights I wonder if the ledger's a cage

Every wound just ink to keep us on the page

But then I see