Verse
Pops laid concrete for thirty years, never owned the ground
Carved his initials in wet curbs when the foreman wasn't around
Said every slab's a ledger, every crack's a debt repaid
Fed six mouths on scraps of overtime and lemonade
I used to trace his handprint pressed in gray before it dried
Learned the block by markings, not by streetlights, not by pride
He buried scars in mortar, kept his aching out the frame
Told me legends don't need cameras, just a steady hand and name
Pre-Chorus
How you read a language carved in ash and stone
How you find your way when the map is bone
Somewhere in that concrete he left me a sign
I follow every mark like it's mine, like it's mine
Chorus
Runestones in the rearview, still they point me home
Every crack he filled is a road I walk alone
Ash on his hands turned to gold in the stone
Runestones in the rearview, I ain't never lost, I ain't never lost
Verse
Now I'm laying my own foundation, different kind of trade
Booth instead of trowel, but the debts still get repaid
Left my mark on the corner where his handprint used to be
Same gray dust on my knuckles, different century
Cousins ask me how I made it, I just point down at the ground
Tell them read between the cracks, that's where the truth is found
He never got the flowers, but the block still holds his name
Every step I take is proof the man was never plain
Pre-Chorus
How you read a language carved in ash and stone
How you find your way when the map is bone
Somewhere in that concrete he left me a sign
I follow every mark like it's mine, like it's mine
Chorus
Runestones in the rearview, still they point me home
Every crack he filled is a road I walk alone
Ash on his hands turned to gold in the stone
Runestones in the rearview, I ain't never lost, I ain't never lost
Bridge
Found out some of them stones marked men who never made it home
Debts he paid in silence so their kids could walk alone
That's the part he never told me, that's the weight inside the gray
Now I carry it forward, that's the only way to pay
Chorus
Runestones in the rearview, still they point me home
Every crack he filled is a road I walk alone
Ash on his hands turned to gold in the stone
Runestones in the rearview, I ain't never lost, I ain't never lost
