Corner Store Theology (Version 4)

Intro

Bell on the door don't ring, it coughs

Odell's radio stuck on static and old gospel

Notebook by the register, spine cracked like a knuckle

Every name in that thing older than the Kool-Aid on the shelf

Verse 1

Marlowe and Twelfth, that store was the only steady thing

Fluorescent light buzzing like a hymn nobody sing

Odell wrote in pencil so the numbers could forgive

Said ink is for the government, graphite's how the block live

I was nine, stealing glances at the candy on the rack

Mama sent me for bread with a five she wanted back

He slid it 'cross the counter, said tell her pay Friday

Wrote her name under "Denise," erased somebody's IOU that same day

Watched him do it for the deacon and the dope boy on the corner

Same pencil, same page, ain't no difference in the order

Said the store don't judge you, judge you'll get enough elsewhere

Rent's already doing that, I keep the credit fair

By sixteen I had my own line under my father's ghost

Paid it off in quarters, paid it slow like he wrote

Some folks never squared it, moved away, changed their name

Odell just turned the page like the debt was never there to blame

Hook

Corner store theology, pencil not a pen

Erase the sin on Sunday, credit rolls again

Odell said forgive it slow but never let it drop

That's the only church we had on Marlowe and Twelfth block

Verse 2

Nineteen, broke, needed formula and I ain't had the ten

Odell looked at my eyes, ain't look at my hands

Said your father squared his debt, that's a name that still means good

Wrote me in under Curtis, said pay it when you could

That's the thing about a ledger built on trust instead of law

It don't care about your record, only care about your word

I got a cousin skipped his tab and skipped the whole zip code

Odell never chased him, said the debt's between him and his soul

Learned more about a man from how he settled up

Than from the chain he wearing or the way he fill a cup

Some nights I'd sweep the floor just to bring the balance down

Odell'd hand me extra, say that ain't how debt works around

He passed it to his nephew when the arthritis took his hand

Nephew tried the register, tried computers, tried a plan

Block revolted quiet, kept on asking for the book

Some things don't compute right if a machine's the one that's keeping track

Hook

Corner store theology, pencil not a pen

Erase the sin on Sunday, credit rolls again

Odell said forgive it slow but never let it drop

That's the only church we had on Marlowe and Twelfth block

Verse 3

Store closed in oh-nine, health made him finally quit

Auctioned off the counter, but somebody kept the notebook, kept it

I got it from his daughter, page still got my father's name

Erasure marks so deep they left a shadow in the grain

Now I run a different kind of ledger, same design

Loan a man some work before I loan a man a dime

Track who's good for what, forgive it when I can

Figure that's the only scripture ever fit into my hand

See the block don't need a preacher much as it need proof