Wolf Winter Psalm

Intro

Snow packs the traproom door, latch frozen shut with rust

Grandfather's coat still hangs there, stiff with old wolf dust

Verse

Wolf winter came in '51, snow up past the sill

Grandfather split the smokehouse wood while the wind stood still

Traps lined the fence like teeth in a jaw gone gray

He'd check them before sunrise, count what the frost would pay

Some nights the pelts were empty, some nights the blood was warm

He'd skin by lamplight steady, never flinched at the storm

Six kids in the cabin, one stove, one loaf of bread

He ate the crust last, said the middle keeps the head clear instead

Told me the wolves don't hunt for hate, they hunt because they're hollow

Same hunger drives the trapper down the path he has to follow

He kept a ledger too, notches carved in pine

One for every pelt, one for every borrowed time

Buried three winters deep before the thaw came slow

Left the traps, the coat, the debt for me to know

I was nine when I first felt that cold teach me its name

Learned that surviving quiet is its own kind of flame

Chorus

It's a wolf winter, snow don't ask you twice

Either you're the hunter or you're paying the price

Ash in the stove, scar on the hand

Legends ain't made warm, they're made where the wolves stand

Verse

Forty years later, same block, different kind of frost

Heat got cut off Tuesday, mama counting what it cost

I split hours like he split wood, three jobs for one plate

Traps ain't steel no more, they're paperwork and late

Landlord got his own ledger, marks the rent in red

I learned to eat the crust last, keep the hunger in my head

Corner boys are wolves now, circling what's thin

I kept my coat zipped tight, never let the cold in

Some nights the block was empty, some nights it ran hot

I moved through like my grandfather, careful with what I got

Carved my own notches, phone screen cracked like ice

Every job I clocked was a pelt, was a sacrifice

They said the ghetto eats you slow like winter eats a lamb

I said the ghetto taught me patience, taught me who I am

Same hunger, different frost, same blood in the vein

I'm the wolf and the trapper, walking in the same terrain

Chorus

It's a wolf winter, snow don't ask you twice

Either you're the hunter or you're paying the price

Ash in the stove, scar on the hand

Legends ain't made warm, they're made where the wolves stand

Bridge

Truth is some winters never thaw, they just change their shape

The block, the war, the bills, the same cold in a new drape

I stopped asking for spring, started building my own fire

Not the kind that keeps you warm, the kind that lifts you higher

Grandfather's coat don't fit me, but I wear the weight the same

Every scar he left in silence,