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
