Saga in Second Hand

Verse

Roll-gate rattles up at six, the same rust song

Counter's scratched with initials from a life that's gone

Watch face cracked but the second hand still creeps

Grandfather's ledger said forgive but never keep

He pawned his own ring in forty-one for flour and coal

Bought it back in autumn with a miner's soul

Said every item's a hostage till the debt clears

Kept the interest low and kept the customer's tears

Now I'm behind glass where he used to stand

Counting other people's history hand to hand

Pre-Chorus

Tell me what's a man worth when his coat's on the rack

Tell me if the story dies when you don't take it back

I've seen fortunes come in golden, leave in tin

Same four walls just breathing different skin

Chorus

Every ring still warm from the hand that let it go

Every coat still holds the shape it used to know

It's a saga in second hand, nothing sold outright

Just the weight of what survived the night

Verse

Nineteen-eighty, mother pawned her wedding band

Paid the rent and prayed the interest wouldn't stand

Ash on the counter from the cigarette she smoked

Waiting on the number that could keep the lights from broke

Found the ticket stub tucked inside a Bible page

Redeemed it at thirty with a grown man's wage

Slid the ring back on her finger, told her don't ask

Some things you carry quiet, some you carry past

Scar on my knuckle from the drawer that always jammed

Still counts the same way that my grandfather's hand ran

Pre-Chorus

Tell me what's a man worth when his coat's on the rack

Tell me if the story dies when you don't take it back

I've seen fortunes come in golden, leave in tin

Same four walls just breathing different skin

Chorus

Every ring still warm from the hand that let it go

Every coat still holds the shape it used to know

It's a saga in second hand, nothing sold outright

Just the weight of what survived the night

Bridge

Maybe legacy ain't marble, ain't a name in bronze

Maybe it's the gate that opens when the morning comes

Maybe every soul that walked through, pawned and paid

Left a little of themselves in what they couldn't save

I don't sell the past, I just hold it for a while

Till the owner's ready, or their children reconcile

Chorus

Every ring still warm from the hand that let it go

Every coat still holds the shape it used to know

It's a saga in second hand, nothing sold outright

Just the weight of what survived the night