Nine Winters, One Name

Intro

Hallow Lake froze black by the first December blade

Saw teeth cracked the silence before the sun was made

Father's name meant nothing till the ice came in hard

Then the whole town called him keeper of the yard

Verse

Sixteen, hands wrapped in burlap, tar under the nail

First cut ran crooked, second cut told a straighter tale

Tongs bit steel into my palm like a debt collector

Lake don't forgive a mistake, it just lets you correct her

Block by block we packed the sawdust house up high

Thick enough to hold December through July

Horse named Solomon pulled sledges 'cross the white

Breath came out in ribbons, curling toward the light

Foreman said the crooked cuts get sold off half

Said a straight line's worth a winter, don't you laugh

Split my knuckle open on the eighth day of the row

Kept on cutting, watched it freeze red in the snow

Momma packed the wagon, said don't come home till dark

Said a man who quits the cold don't leave a mark

By March my arms were rope, my spine a bridge of ache

First winter taught me ice remembers every mistake

Hook

Nine winters, one name

Cut it cold, it never changed

Frost don't lie, frost don't fade

Nine winters, one name

Verse

Second winter I could read the lake like scripture

Black ice hums different than the white, different texture

Showed the younger boys where the current ran too thin

Where the surface looked solid but the bottom caved in

By year five they dropped my given name for Keeper

Titles come from blisters, not from talking deeper

Sixth winter lost a man named Ambrose to the deep

Ice looks like a promise, then it don't keep