Intro
Notebook corner torn, pages soft as skin
Every mercy that kept me breathing, I write it in
Not the debts in dollars, not the scores to settle
Just the times the world went easy when it could've been brutal
Verse 1
Sharpie mark on Ms. Odell's door, that's how she ran the rent
Said pay me Friday, wrote January, never asked where the money went
Barbershop on Fenwick, Ray cut my head for free
Said you got a interview tomorrow, this one's on me
Bus driver waved me on when my pocket came up dry
December wind cutting through my jacket, ain't say goodbye
Teacher slipped a five inside my binder, never said a word
Called it lost and found, but I knew she saw, I knew she heard
Pardo's ran a tab when my mother worked the night shift
Wrote my name in pencil, never once made me split it
Church basement Tuesdays, plate of rice nobody counted
Old man passed his coat down, said it fit him when he mounted
These the entries no one prints, no interest, no collections
Just a column full of grace, written off corrections
I was drowning half these winters, didn't know I had a rope
Turns out it was stitched from strangers I ain't know
Hook
I keep a ledger of small mercies
Every kindness that got me through it
Can't repay it, so I pass it
Ledger of small mercies, that's how we do it
Verse 2
Now I'm the one who marks the door, tell Danny pay me when he can
He's seventeen, his mother's sick, I remember where I stand
Cut a young boy's hair myself, no charge, told him clean it up
Told him hold his head up higher than the cup he think he's stuck in
Slipped a twenty in my nephew's coat, ain't say a single thing
Let him find it Monday morning like a small unplanned spring
But mercy ain't a muscle that stays strong without the practice
Some nights I locked the register, told myself it's just business
Watched a kid get turned away and didn't speak, ain't step up
Carried that one heavier than any debt I ever kept
That's the entry that I hate to write, the one in fading ink
The mercy that I held back on the night I chose not think
Ledger's got two columns, and I balance them the same
Every gift I gave don't cancel out the one I couldn't claim
Hook
I keep a ledger of small mercies
Every kindness that got me through it
Can't repay it, so I pass it
Ledger of small mercies, that's how we do it
Bridge
Found that kid again last winter, standing where I left him cold
Gave him what I owed him then, said the interest, it's on hold
He ain't say much, just nodded, walked off wearing my old coat
That's the closest thing to closing out a debt I ever wrote
Outro
Notebook's full now, corners torn, I'm starting up a new one
Same as Ms.
