Intro
Kept a ledger in my ribs, every debt I owed
Every mile on broken knees, every stone I rolled
Mama's fingers in the dirt, Pops' silence in the cold
Some men read the stars—I read the price of getting old
Verse
Watched my uncle split his wages seven ways on Friday nights
Rent and school fees, medicine, and shoes that fit just right
He kept a notebook—chicken scratch, no decimals, just lines
One mark per mouth he fed, one mark per time we survived
Sister quit her sleep at sixteen, cleaning rich folks' homes
Came back with their soap smell and blood under her nails alone
Said the money's good but daughter, dignity's the cost
I told her every scar's a contract, nothing in this world is lost
Saw my grandmother count coins on the kitchen table's edge
Stack them by the dollar, pray them into bread
She never bought herself a thing that wasn't secondhand and worn
But she built a house from nothing—four rooms, a yard of corn
That's the math I learned before they taught me how to count
That's the ledger that I carry, that's the only truth I mount
Chorus
Every bone I broke is a step I take
Every scar they left is the road I make
Ledger of bones, I'm reading it straight
Ledger of bones, I'm reading it straight
Verse
Father worked the docks from dark to dark, no overtime, no praise
Just the weight of crates and weather wearing grooves into his face
He taught me how to read a man by how he holds his jaw
How the smallest act of showing up becomes the only law
I was small enough to follow him through gates at half past five
Watched him move like purpose, watched him choose to stay alive
Not the kind with fanfare—just the kind that doesn't quit
Just the kind that knows the difference between breath and benefit
Now I'm older than he was when his body finally bent
And I carry what he carried, every muscle, every cent
Not the money that we gathered, but the silence that we kept
The agreement that we made but never once had to accept
Chorus
Every bone I broke is a step I take
Every scar they left is the road I make
Ledger of bones, I'm reading it straight
Ledger of bones, I'm reading it straight
Bridge
They ask me how I move so calm when everything's on fire
I tell them that my people taught me how to read the wire
How to find the current running underneath the pain
How to turn the weight they gave me into something I can claim
This ain't poetry, this is proof—the way we still stand tall
This is ledger, this is bone, this is having nothing and giving all
Outro
Kept a ledger in my ribs, balanced to the bone
Every debt repaid in blood means I ain't never alone
Every mark my people left is a map that leads back home
Ledger of bones, ledger of bones
