Runes in the Ledger (version 2)

Intro

Chalk dust and kerosene, that's how the count began

Every mark on the beam was a name, was a man

Verse

Great-granddad checked the cargo off a dock in the dark

Wrote his own alphabet so the foreman missed the mark

Symbol for a short shift, symbol for a lie

Slash across the crate meant the scale was set too high

They docked his pay in silence, so he docked it back in code

Turned a busted ledger to a language on the road

Taught his boy the runes before he taught him how to read

Said the ink don't lie, only men do when they're greedy

Thirty years of tally marks pressed into the spine

Every crooked sum got settled somewhere down the line

Kept the book under floorboards, wrapped in oiled cloth

Said a man who loses count is a man who's already lost

Died with chalk still on his fingers, ash under his nail

Left the ledger to his son like a torch, like a trail

Said read it slow, the numbers carry weight

Every mark's a mouth that