Redeemable
Intro
Ticket number 1776.
Verse 1
Down at the end of Main Street, where the bank used to be
There's a pawnshop full of pieces of the land of the free
A torch from the harbor in a case beside the door
And Lady Justice on a nail, her blindfold on the floor
And high behind the counter, with a crack up from the lip
Hung an old bell with a ticket on a yellowed paper slip
Pre-Chorus
I said, "How much for the bell?"
He said, "Ma'am, it's not for sale
It's been on layaway two hundred fifty years"
Then he turned the ticket over
And it said
Chorus
Redeemable
Stamped there in faded red
Not lost, not sold, not gone for good
Just pawned, the ticket said
But a ticket's only paper
Till somebody comes back
Lays it on the counter
And says, "I'm here for that"
Verse 2
I looked it up when I got home, that word on the stub
Turns out "redeem" meant money long before it meant love
In the oldest law they had, if your brother sold himself for debt
You didn't wait on heaven, and you didn't just forget
You emptied out your pockets and you went and bought him back
Wasn't angels did the saving. It was kin. Imagine that.
Chorus
Redeemable
Stamped there in faded red
Not lost, not sold, not gone for good
Just pawned, the ticket said
But a ticket's only paper
Till somebody comes back
Lays it on the counter
And says, "I'm here for that"
Bridge
Every fiftieth year they'd blow the horn and wipe the slate
Every debt forgiven, every servant through the gate
They called it Jubilee, and we carved it on our bell
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land
Unto all the inhabitants thereof
All. Not some. All.
The mother in the lobby, the trans kid in the hall
The neighbor in the swampland, behind the wall
The abolitionists read it, and they gave the bell its name
It's cracked, and so are we, but it says it all the same
Verse 3
Now there's folks buying hospital bills at a penny on the buck
Mailing letters out to strangers: "Paid in full. Good luck."
There's whistles on the corner when the vans come down the block
And a church that left the light on and a door they won't unlock
We've bought each other back before, from the chains and from the mines
From the lunch counters, the bridges, and the picket lines
Final Chorus
Redeemable
Still there in faded red
Not lost, not sold, not gone for good
Not yet, the old man said
So I emptied out my pockets
And the line went out the door
Nobody had enough alone
Turns out that's what the line was for
Outro
All. Not some. All.
Ticket's still good. For now.