FOUNDATION LEDGER

[Verse 1]
The gold on the plaque catches light from the kitchen stove, second shift done.
He hears the key in the Schlage lock turn at quarter to one.
The squeak of her nursing shoes on the vinyl is a drum he knows by heart,
Same rhythm since the funeral, the tearing-apart.
He traces the grain on the oak of the table his first check bought,
A solid thing in a silent house, a battle hard-fought.
She hangs her keys on the hook, doesn't look in the studio door,
Sees the lights on, assumes he's chasing something more.

[Chorus]
The words are in the wiring, the truth is in the frame.
He built the whole damn building just to never say her name.
A debt without a number, a receipt without the ink,
The silence is the mortar holding every single brick.

[Verse 2]
She smells the bleach from her scrubs, sees the week's mail on the counter, still sealed.
Remembers summer evenings on a different patch of field.
Before the hit-and-run, before the quiet got so loud,
When two sons made a back-and-forth, a whole damn crowd.
He closes the laptop, the waveform flatlines on the screen,
Another letter to a ghost, a message trapped between
The speaker and the drywall. He mouths a silent 'thanks.'
She runs the water in the sink to fill the empty ranks.

[Chorus]
The words are in the wiring, the truth is in the frame.
He built the whole damn building just to never say her name.
A debt without a number, a receipt without the ink,
The silence is the mortar holding every single brick.

[Bridge]
"'You eat today, Jamal?' a voice through the plaster, low and thin."
He wants to say her overtime paid for the mic he's speaking in.
He wants to say her sacrifice is the slab this whole thing's on.
He just says, "Yeah, I'm good, Ma," and waits until she's gone.

[Outro]
The words are in the wiring.
The truth is in the frame.
The silence is the mortar.
He'll never say her name.