Verse
Tar roof at five, feed sack heavy on my shoulder
Grandfather's coop, wire bent but it's older
Than half the block, older than the corner store sign
He said watch the wings before you watch the time
Taught me how a bird knows home from a mile
Taught me patience when the block turned hostile
Scar on my palm from the mesh when I was ten
Same scar he carried, same hands, different men
Curfew lights hit the alley like a slow strobe
Feathers black as the coats they zip on the cold
Every morning I climb up before the sun clocks in
Count the birds like counting who made it, who's thin
Pre-Chorus
Do they circle 'cause they're loyal, or they circle 'cause they're lost
Every wing that comes back home was a bet against the cost
Chorus
Ravens over the quarter, keeping score on who's still breathing
Ash on the chimney, names I'm never leaving
They rise off the roofline when the sirens start to call
Ravens over the quarter watching over us all
Verse
Papers said the block was cursed, said it twice in print
Never asked the coop keeper how the winter went
Fed the birds on credit when the feed store closed
Kept the ledger honest, kept the wire froze
Buried one under the drainpipe, marked it with a stone
Kept flying anyway, kept the rest of them home
They ask why I still climb when my knees don't want to
I tell them ask the birds why they still return
Pre-Chorus
Do they circle 'cause they're loyal, or they circle 'cause they're lost
Every wing that comes back home was a bet against the cost
Chorus
Ravens over the quarter, keeping score on who's still breathing
Ash on the chimney, names I'm never leaving
They rise off the roofline when the sirens start to call
Ravens over the quarter watching over us all
Bridge
One day my hands won't climb that ladder no more
Somebody young gon' inherit the wire, the scar, the war
I'll be the name that circles, not the one that feeds
Still counted every morning by the wings that I need
Chorus
Ravens over the quarter, keeping score on who's still breathing
Ash on the chimney, names I'm never leaving
They rise off the roofline when the sirens start to call
Ravens over the quarter watching over us all
