Iron Ledger (version 2)

Verse 1

Grandfather ran the forge past the tannery gate

Hammered iron pages, called it the iron ledger's weight

No paper in the shop, said cotton rots in the rain

Chiseled every debt in metal, cut it through the grain

Miller owed for horseshoes, tanner owed for nails

He struck the tally deep so the truth could never fail

Ash on his knuckles, scars where the sparks would land

Said a promise built in fire outlasts a promise shook by hand

Pre-Chorus

What's a debt worth if the record disappears

What's a name worth if it don't survive the years

He kept his word in metal so the metal kept the years

Chorus

Call it the iron ledger, every mark is true

Fire can't erase it, water can't undo

Paper folds to ash, but the metal holds the debt

Iron don't forget what the hands ain't paid off yet

Verse 2

Now I'm the one who's keeping what his hands began

Same forge gone cold, but the ledger's still a plan

I write it in scars now, not ash, same language different tongue

Every favor, every failure, weighed and hammered young

Man owed me silence when the block was going dark

I collected it in trust, not blood, left a different mark

They call it legacy, I call it unpaid weight

Passed down like an anvil through a half-shut gate

Pre-Chorus

What's a debt worth if the record disappears

What's a name worth if it don't survive the years

He kept his word in metal so the metal kept the years

Chorus

Call it the iron ledger, every mark is true

Fire can't erase it, water can't undo

Paper folds to ash, but the metal holds the debt

Iron don't forget what the hands ain't paid off yet

Bridge

Turns out the ledger wasn't only made of debt

Half the page was kindness that the town ain't settled yet

A meal on credit, a coat left on a chair

Grandfather marked it even, said the good stays even there

I opened up the book and found my name in his old hand

Already halfway paid before I learned to understand

Chorus

Call it the iron ledger, every mark is true

Fire can't erase it, water can't undo

Paper folds to ash, but the metal holds the debt

Iron don't forget what the hands ain't paid off yet