Wolves at the Wharf (Version 2)

Intro

Dock at four a.m., before the gulls come in

Rope freeze in your hands like a covenant with sin

Grandfather's knife still rust on the post where he bled

I keep it sharp for the weight that he left unsaid

Verse 1

Nets don't mend themselves, neither do the men

Father took the boat out, didn't come back in

Mother worked the fish plant, twelve-hour shifts, calloused palms

Taught me how to wait for nothing, how to hold a calm

Brother left at sixteen, said the sea was just a gate

Got a letter from some city, postmark wouldn't state

I was nine when I first learned that leaving looks like choice

Stayed behind and learned my family's only voice

Sunrise on the wharf, ice cracks like a lock

Nets pile high as tombs, smell of salt and stock

Learned to read the water like my grandfather's scars

Each one told a story 'bout the cost of getting far

Sister trades her wages for the rent on Maple Street

I trade my daylight for the boats that never sleep

Winter's coming early, nets are thinner every year

But I stay on the dock 'cause legend's born from here

Chorus

Wolves at the wharf, patience is a blade

They come for the weak but I don't break

Wolves at the wharf, patience is a blade

They come for the weak but I don't break

Verse 2

Dealer came down Tuesday with a handful of fast cash

Said I'd make more money if I ditched the daily gash

Told him that the wharf don't pay in speed, it pays in time

Told him that my family tree's carved into this brine

Uncle lost his station to a man who bought the pier

Now he drinks in darkness, says he sees my grandfather here

I was seventeen when greed wore my neighbor's face

Learned that fortune's closer when you own a smaller space

Nets come up empty, quotas come up short

But the men who leave the wharf don't know their way back to port

Frost collects like ash on every rope I hold

Breath turns into vapor, body turns to cold

Captain says the season's done, we pulling up the fleet

But I know the wolves return when hunger meets the street

So I stay in the cold with the ledger that I keep

Count the ones who stayed alive, count the ones who sleep

Chorus

Wolves at the wharf, patience is a blade

They come for the weak but I don't break

Wolves at the wharf, patience is a blade

They come for the weak but I don't break

Verse 3

Twenty years of daylight, hands like driftwood now

Still remember what the captain taught me—how

Legend isn't built on leaving, ain't constructed on escape

It's the ones who hold the post when everything looks fake

My son asks me why I stay in a place that doesn't pay

I show him grandfather's knife, say some debts you can't betray

Show him how the wood remembers every man who came before

Show him how the wharf becomes a temple and a door

Brother finally called last week from somewhere down south

Said he's made a fortune, got a house, a spouse, a route

Asked me why I'm still here, wasting daylight on the pier

I said the wolves still come to feed, and somebody's got to steer