Intro
Cold porch light, I'm counting scars again
(still counting)
Every mark's a mile I walked, not where I've been
Verse
Fourth floor walk-up, ceiling leaking rust
Momma's Bible open, faith and cracked drywall dust
I was seven, tracing routes on grocery receipts
Learned to add up hunger 'fore I learned my feet
Seventeen, cold hands wrapped around a mic
Studio was a closet, one bulb for the light
Booked a session, walked eight miles through the sleet
Rhymed on empty stomach, made the silence keep the beat
Twenty, lost a brother to a block that don't forgive
Wrote his name in Sharpie on the wall where I live
Every scar's a receipt for a lesson I bought
Every failed hook taught me harder than I thought
Landlord banging, I'm behind two months again
Still I'm counting bars like I'm counting scars, my friend
No safety net, just the calluses I grew
Turned the static into rhythm, made the pain construe
Chorus
Still counting scars, still climbing the stairs
Every busted knuckle proof that I was there
Ain't erasing nothing, wear it like a crown
Still counting scars on the way up from down
Verse
Twenty-three, got a booth that ain't borrowed no more
Paid it off in cash from the shows and the tours
Momma got new hinges on that old front door
Still I drive the same block just to remember the score
Kept the busted Nikes on the shelf like a trophy
Reminder of the winter when the heat bill was sloppy
Every dollar that I earn, I split it three ways
Half for the future, half to erase old debt days
Critics say I switched up, say the sound got too clean
Nah, I just learned how to season what I mean
Same fire, different pot, I'm cooking generational
Turning old scars into a story rational
Late nights still hit different, ghosts still ride along
But now I write them letters, put 'em into the song
Every verse a mirror of the war that I survived
Still counting scars like currency, keeping me alive
Chorus
Still counting scars, still climbing the stairs
Every busted knuckle proof that I was there
Ain't erasing nothing, wear it like a crown
Still counting scars on the way up from down
Bridge
Sometimes I stare at the mirror, count them one by one
Not for the pain no more, just for the war I won
Each line a lesson, each ache a compass true
Pointing to the man I swore that I'd break through
Outro
Still counting scars, but the count don't weigh me down
No, it's the map that led me out the drowning town
Every mark's a milestone, every ache's a key
Still counting scars, still becoming me
