Wolfskin Ledger Lines (version 2)

Intro

Wolfskin stretched across a frame my grandfather bled to tan

Notches down the spine spell out how a starving man began

Some men keep their count in banks they never learn to trust

I keep mine in fur and thread, in blood turned into dust

Verse

Forty below and the creek talked back in cracks and groans

He walked the trapline with iron jaws and breath turned into stone

Six pelts a week paid the debt the trading post kept tight

One skin for flour, one for lead, one to last the night

Skinned by lantern, hands like leather, cracked along the palm

Stitched the numbers into hide so the winter stayed calm

Notch for the brother lost his toes out on the ice

Notch for the spring that made the losing feel like sacrifice

Post man called him reckless for the way he kept his math

Reckless men don't feed a house through eight months of that path

He sold the last pelt cheap to bury what the cold had earned

Kept the ledger in a drawer, said some things ain't meant to burn

Passed it to his son still stiff with frost along the seam

Said the wolf don't haunt you, boy, it's the hunger in the dream

Forty years of tally marks, no ink, just teeth and grain

That hide remembers harder than a stone remembers rain

Chorus

Every notch is a winter, every winter is a name

I don't count my money, I just count what didn't change

Wolfskin ledger on the wall still keeping perfect time

Some men bleed for nothing, I bleed to draw the line

Verse

Now the frame's a corner store, the traps are unpaid rent

Same iron in my knuckles, different kind of element

I keep my count on concrete, chalk marks by the door

Notch for every winter that I made it through before

Landlord speaks in fractions, tries to shrink me down to size

Same trick the post man ran on trappers three lives in disguise

I sold what I could sell, kept what I couldn't lose

My name, my father's ledger, and the boots I wear for shoes

Cousin caught a bid, I notched it next to my own scars

Brother caught a bullet, I notched it under the stars

Ain't bragging on the count, I'm bragging that it's mine

Every mark's a witness that I didn't cross the line

Wolfskin's in the closet now, soft with age and smoke

Still got teeth marks where the winter tried to break the yoke

I run my thumb across it when the bills stack like snow

Reminds me every hunger has a ledger, has a code

Chorus

Every notch is a winter, every winter is a name

I don't count my money, I just count what didn't change

Wolfskin ledger on the wall still keeping perfect time

Some men bleed for nothing, I bleed to draw the line

Bridge

My son asked why the fur looks torn in places, thin with years

I told him every tear's a door somebody walked through scared

He wants a ledger of his own, wants to start the count

I said the first notch is the hardest, boy, don't be afraid to mount

The rest come easier once you learn what they're for

Not the debt, not the dying, just the proof you walked through the door

Outro