Runestone Ledger (Version 2)

Intro

Chisel scrape at dawn, dust settling like breath

Every mark my grandad cut was proof of what was left

Quarry silence heavier than any debt he kept

Verse

Granddad cut granite for the mill town's spine

Thirty cents a slab and a lung full of lime

Kept a nub of chalk turned tally on the stone

One line for every debt he had to atone

Corner store credit, doctor bill past due

He'd chisel a notch where the foundation grew

Said the rock remembers what the paper can't hold

Long after the ink fades the granite stays cold

Watched him work Sundays with his knuckles all cracked

Dust in his collar like a debt on his back

He never spoke much but the stone told the tale

Every strike he survived was another nail

Buried three brothers in the same quarry ground

Marked their names in runes where the roots wrapped around

Told me son the ledger don't lie when it's carved

Everything you owe gets paid or it starves

Chorus

Stone don't forget what the flesh let go

Every notch is a name that I carved to know

I keep the ledger where the granite bleeds

Runestone ledger, that's the only creed (stone)

Runestone