Interest on a Cold Block

Verse

Corner store window fogged with the cold,

Quarter in my palm from a stranger, told me hold

the line till my mother's shift let out at nine.

That was the first loan the block put on the line.

Space heater glowing orange in the lobby of the C train,

We split the warmth like it was somebody's pension.

Borrowed a coat off my cousin, gave it back with a tear in it,

Block don't forgive that, block just adds the interest.

Pre-Chorus

Tell me who's collecting when the streetlight flickers twice,

Tell me what I owe for every winter that I priced

in hours, in favors, in a name I used to be —

The block kept the ledger longer than it kept on me.

Chorus

Every year I stood here, the block took its cut,

Interest on a cold block, paid in what I was.

Every year I stood here, the block took its cut,

Interest on a cold block, that's the only trust.

Verse

Ten years later, I walk past the same bent gate,

Count the ones still standing like I'm balancing the weight.

Marcus took the loan and never made the payment,

Traded his whole spring for a summer of arraignment.

I kept my receipts — every insult, every kindness,

Filed them next to promises I made when I was nine.

The block don't ask forgiveness, it just asks for the fee,

Whatever warmth it gave you, it collects eventually.

Pre-Chorus

Tell me who's collecting when the streetlight flickers twice,

Tell me what I owe for every winter that I priced

in hours, in favors, in a name I used to be —

The block kept the ledger longer than it kept on me.

Chorus

Every year I stood here, the block took its cut,

Interest on a cold block, paid in what I was.

Every year I stood here, the block took its cut,

Interest on a cold block, that's the only trust.

Bridge

But the same block that billed me kept the lights on when I froze,

Handed me a heater when the system had closed.

Maybe debt ain't only losing — maybe some of it's owed

back to the hands that fed me when the whole world said no.

I stopped keeping score of who took and who gave,

Some interest buys you shelter, some just marks a grave.

Chorus

Every year I stood here, the block took its cut,

Interest on a cold block, paid in what I was.

Every year I stood here, the block took its cut,

Interest on a cold block, that's the only trust.