Scars Don't Lie

Intro

Otis kept his ledger in the shape of a scar

Said the tale don't need words when the skin already talked

Verse 1

Vermont and Loyola, gym over the laundromat

Steam on the window like the block was holding back

Heavy bag patched with electrical tape and rust

Liniment and chalk dust, that's the smell of trust

Fifteen years old, caught a jab I never saw

Split my brow open, Otis smiled, said that's the law

Fishhook scar over my eye, first bill I ever paid

Reggie owed me forty from a bet we made

Wouldn't meet my eyes, kept talking to the wall

But he wrapped my hands the night my father crawled out the door small

Gauze pulled tight, said breathe through your nose, kid

So I let the forty go, kept the ledger closed lid

Otis says trust gets carved, not given like a loan

Scar on my knuckle from a job, one on my shin from chrome

Corner boys read marks like tickers on a board

Mine stayed quiet till the day that forty got restored

Chorus

Scars don't lie, they keep the count

Every line's a receipt for what I didn't back down from

Scars don't lie, they hold the weight

Of the ones I earned and the ones I gave away

Verse 2

Ten years later I'm the one behind the tape

Dante's sixteen, quick hands, restless with his shape

Told me Marcus offered him a corner and a phone

Said the money's faster, said I'm tired of being broke and known

I showed him my brow, said this here bought me nothing fast

Every stitch a bill collecting interest from the past

He laughed it off, said old man, times have changed

I said the block's the same, just the prices rearranged

Took him to the pawn shop where they know my face

Vouched for him on credit that my own scars had to grace

Owner looked at Dante, looked at me, said your word's good

Said in this neighborhood, that's the only thing that should

Dante ran it straight, paid it back in nine

Came back to the gym, said Otis, wrap me one more time

That's the currency nobody counterfeits or steals

The kind that shows up honest when the wound reveals

Chorus

Scars don't lie, they keep the count

Every line's a receipt for what I didn't back down from

Scars don't lie, they hold the weight

Of the ones I earned and the ones I gave away

Bridge

There's one scar I never explain, small, behind my ear

Where my father's ring caught skin the last November here

I could tell Dante that one too, let him see it clean

But some receipts you keep, some stay between

the mirror and the man who's paying still

Not every mark's