Nineteen Again

Nineteen again, pass it slow
Ten in the jar on the kitchen shelf
Same old sock in a new small hand
Nineteen again, that's the plan

Saturday noon and the screen door slams
My boy comes in with grass on his hands
Eleven years old, Miss Carter's yard
Forty dollars folded, holding it hard
He put it on the table like it might run off
Looked at me like, "Daddy, is it enough?"
I didn't say good, I didn't say more
I walked down the hall to the bottom drawer
Pulled out a white sock, soft and gray
Nine old dollars from a long gone day
He said, "What's that?" I said, "That's me,
Eleven years old, same grass, same knees"

Nineteen again, pass it slow
Ten in the jar on the kitchen shelf
Same old sock in a new small hand
Nineteen again, that's the plan

Pass it down

Pass it down
(down)
Watch him grow
(grow)
Nineteen again
(count it twice)

He counted it once, I told him, "Twice"
He counted it twice and he counted it right
He put ten in the jar on the kitchen shelf
Put twenty in his pocket for his own self
Then he looked at the sock and he looked at me
Pulled one more ten and he set it free
Said, "That's for the sock, so it's not alone"
Nine plus ten and the sock went home
Nineteen again, I had to turn away
Grown man crying at the end of the day
Called my mama, said, "You won't believe"
She said, "I believe it, I taught you to see"
Same drawer, same sock, a new first time
Money is a story, and the story's mine

Jar gets ten
(ten)
Sock gets nine
(nine)
Now it's his turn
To open mine

Nineteen again, pass it slow
Ten in the jar on the kitchen shelf
Same old sock in a new small hand
Nineteen again, that's the plan

I thought that sock was holding my past.
It was waiting
for his first.
Every quiet dollar I ever stacked
was just a drawer
I could open for him.

Nineteen again, pass it slow
(pass it slow)
Ten in the jar on the kitchen shelf
(kitchen shelf)
Same old sock in a new small hand
Nineteen again, that's the plan
(that's the plan)

Count it twice.

Count it twice.
(count it twice)