Kinsman's Toll (version 2)

Intro

Gatehouse creaks like a knee that's seen too much frost

Lantern swings slow over names that the river crossed

Verse

Grandfather kept the ledger, ink gone brown as the planks

Wrote the same line twice for the men who never said thanks

Toll was a nickel then, blood was worth about the same

He'd wave the widows through and mark it down as a name

Father took the post when the flood took both his hands

Learned to count by lantern light, learned the weight of plans

I was six when I first held the gate key in my palm

Felt it hum like a hymn, felt the river holding calm

They said the bridge don't break for kin, only for the greed

Every plank's a promise that we nailed instead of freed

Ice forms on the rail like a crown we didn't earn

Wind tries to strip the paint but the toll box still burns

I count the coins at midnight, stack them like a psalm

Every crossing that I clear is a debt I carry calm

Same brown ink, same river, same unyielding land

Same key passed down heavier in every steady hand

Hook

This the kinsman's toll, paid in coin and cold

Every gate we open costs a story to be told

Blood in the ledger, names cut in the wood

Nobody crosses free, that's the toll we hold for good

Verse

Now the county wants to buy the gate and tear the post

Say the bridge is outdated, say the toll's a ghost

But I still light the lantern every evening at five

Been forty years of vigil, kept the ledger alive

Cars line up in silence like they're waiting for grace

I take exact change and look each driver in the face

Some pay with a story 'stead of silver in the tray

Say their mother crossed here fleeing on a rainy day

I mark it in the book beside my father's faded hand

Same brown ink, same river, same unyielding land

They offer me a pension just to walk away for good

I tell them legacy ain't currency, it's understood

Frost cracks the wood but the hinges still comply

I oil them with the patience that my father learned to buy

Toll booth window fogs but I still see clear through

Every soul that passes owes the ones who built it too

Hook

This the kinsman's toll, paid in coin and cold

Every gate we open costs a story to be told

Blood in the ledger, names cut in the wood

Nobody crosses free, that's the toll we hold for good

Bridge

My daughter asks me why we don't just let it fall

I tell her some gates hold history, not cinderblock and wall

Told her every crossing that we clear, someone fought hard

So the next one wouldn't drown out back behind the yard

She's got the ledger now, her handwriting is neat

First entry reads "no debt too old to greet"

I handed her the lantern when my knees gave out to age

Told her the flame's inheritance, never was a wage

Outro

Bridge still stands, gate still swings

Toll gets paid for everything

Kinsman's toll, that's the price of ground