Intro
Card table missing a leg, propped up by a brick
Chalk dust and dominoes, that's the liturgy we pick
Smoke rising off the grill like it's asking to be blessed
Deacon Ray deals the bones, calls it recess
Verse
I was seven when I learned the rules under that awning
Domino face down, don't speak till the round's yawning
Uncle Turk taught me silence pays better than a boast
Watch the table, read the hands, that's the only toast
Miss Pearl bring the greens in a pot wrapped in towel
Plate goes round the circle before anybody scowl
Ain't no menu, ain't no bill, just a nod when you done
Every folding chair a pew underneath the sun
Learned my numbers adding pips before the alphabet
Learned my loyalty watching who stayed when the block got wet
Rain came hard one August, table floating like a raft
Half the block ran home, the other half just laughed
Deacon Ray ain't move, said the game don't break for weather
Said the ones who stay in the storm, that's who you keep forever
I was soaked down to the bone but I stood there anyway
First time I understood what the concrete had to say
Chorus
We break bread on broken concrete
Same table, same faith, same beat
Every scar at this table gets a seat
Concrete communion, that's the truth I keep
Verse
Ten years later, table's rusted, missing another leg
Deacon Ray in a wheelchair now, still calls every peg
Nay-Nay moved to Charlotte, sends a picture every spring
Turk doing eight years upstate for a stupid little thing
Table still get set on Sunday, chairs still make a ring
But half of them are empty now, echo when we sing
I bring the folding chairs myself, unstack 'em from the shed
Grandma's apron still be hanging where Miss Pearl used to spread
New kids on the block don't know what the bones used to mean
Think it's just a game, don't know it's how we stayed clean
I try to teach it the same way Turk taught me the code
Silence pays, read the hands, walk the same old road
Sent Turk a picture of the table, said it's still standing tall
He wrote back three words on the letter: don't let it fall
I carry every empty chair like it's carrying me
Concrete don't forget who showed up for free
