Wolves at the Pawn Shop (version 2)

Verse

Grandad hocked his horn the winter the heat got cut

Taped the ticket to the fridge like a stitched-up cut

Ninety days written small in the corner, red ink bleeding

Counted down the same as scripture, same as breathing

Watched the regulars circle glass like they smelled the meat

Waiting on a family's clock to run out on the street

I was twelve, too small to work, too old not to see

What it cost a man to trade his sound for security

Learned the numbers on those tickets like a second name

Every pawn a prayer that somebody comes back the same

Pre-Chorus

How many days left, how much can a memory hold

How long till the silver turns to somebody else's gold

I kept the receipt folded, kept it close to the bone

I already know, I already know

Chorus

Wolves at the pawn shop, circling the glass

Ninety days on the clock before the gold don't last

I came back for everything my family had to pawn

Redeemed every ticket 'fore the wolves were gone

Verse

Grown now, first check cashed, I drove there straight from work

Bought the horn back dusty, wiped it clean, it didn't hurt

Next month the ring, the one my grandmother wore thin

Man behind the counter said he wondered when I'd come again

Told him every piece got a story stitched inside the case

Told him I remember every face that circled this place

Now I keep a list, I keep a fund, I keep the door

Help the young ones beat the clock so they ain't losing more

Turned the corner where the wolves used to wait and feed

Into a place where a family plants instead of bleeds

Pre-Chorus

How many days left, how much can a memory hold

How long till the silver turns to somebody else's gold

I kept the receipt folded, kept it close to the bone

I already know, I already know

Chorus

Wolves at the pawn shop, circling the glass

Ninety days on the clock before the gold don't last

I came back for everything my family had to pawn

Redeemed every ticket 'fore the wolves were gone

Bridge

I ain't never sold what I couldn't buy back twice

Every scar's a receipt, every debt's got a price

The wolves still circling, but they circling slower now

They see me walk in, they already know how

Chorus

Wolves at the pawn shop, circling the glass

Ninety days on the clock before the gold don't last

I came back for everything my family had to pawn

Redeemed every ticket 'fore the wolves were gone