Wolf Fang Winters

Verse

Snowline six miles out, lantern swinging on my wrist

Grandfather's compass needle frozen where it used to twist

His gate still hangs out past the ridge where the fence line used to run

Forty years on frostbit knees, hunting till the hunting was done

Every fang he pulled he strung on sinew, wore it like a debt

Said the wolf that leaves you scarred gives you something ain't paid off yet

Found his ledger in the cabin, ink gone brown as bark and stone

Names beside the numbers of the men who walked home cold and alone

Pre-Chorus

How many nights you trade for warmth before the warmth runs out

How many teeth you carry till the carrying's the doubt

I ask the wind, it answers back in silence and in sleet

Chorus

Wolf fang winters, strung along my chest

Every one I'm wearing is a season that I bled

The cold don't ask you kindly, it just takes what it can keep

I'm still walking, still counting, still awake when the wolves sleep

Verse

Twenty years since the cabin burned, ash still in the floorboard grain

City kept the trapline's shape but wears the same cold reign

Steel plates rust on corners now where snares used to lay

Same hunger in my stomach that my grandfather wore all day

Traded fur for hustle, traded snow for concrete frost

Still keeping track of everything the winter ever cost

Every fang I couldn't pull just turned into a debt

The line don't care what decade, it collects what you ain't paid yet

Pre-Chorus

How many nights you trade for warmth before the warmth runs dry

How many fangs you carry till you understand the why

I ask the wind, it answers back in silence and in sleet

Chorus

Wolf fang winters, strung along my chest

Every one I'm wearing is a season that I bled

The cold don't ask you kindly, it just takes what it can keep

I'm still walking, still counting, still awake when the wolves sleep

Bridge

I don't hunt no more, I just keep what I collected

Hang it in the doorway so the house remembers what protected

My son asked what the teeth mean, I told him every one's a year

Told him cold won't kill you once you learn to wear it near

Chorus

Wolf fang winters, strung along my chest

Every one I'm wearing is a season that I bled

The cold don't ask you kindly, it just takes what it can keep

I'm still walking, still counting, still awake when the wolves sleep