Intro
Longhouse built from hands not lumber, forty winters strong
Grandmother sang the tally count so no one counted wrong
Snow packed the sill like plaster, door bar thick as bone
Somewhere past the treeline something circled, low and prone
Verse
Grandfather kept the trapline three miles past the ridge
Checked it before sunrise, ice cracking on the bridge
Pelts stretched tight on willow frames, hung along the wall
Traded fur for flour when the harvest wouldn't fall
Wolves came close in famine years, ribs showing through the gray
He said hunger makes a beggar out of anything that preys
Kept a rifle by the doorframe, kept a blade beneath the bed
Said the door holds more than weather, holds the living from the dead
Six of us packed in that longhouse, sharing every coal
Rationed meat by firelight, split it soul for soul
Tally marks in charcoal counted debts we'd never spend
Every scar he wore was a lesson, not an end
One January the pack got bold, scratched along the beam
He didn't flinch, just loaded slow and doused the lamp's last gleam
Shot rang once, the circling stopped, silence took the yard
He said the door will hold if the ones inside stand hard
Chorus
Wolves at the longhouse door, they smell what we don't got
They circle every winter, testing every lock we bought
We don't run, we don't beg, we just stack the wood up more
Legends aren't the ones who left, they're the ones who held the door
Verse
Same house still standing, siding rusted at the seam
Grandfather's rifle traded for a phone that never rings clean
Now the wolves wear polos, come around when rent's past due
Clipboard where the teeth were, same hunger pushing through
My father held that door too, forty years on the line
Factory closed the summer I turned nine, no severance, no sign
He split the deer meat even when the freezer ran thin
Taught me count your blessings by the ones you let back in
Collectors called at supper, voice smooth as oiled leather
He hung up slow and told me storms don't care about the weather
I watched him tally bills in charcoal like Grandpa did
Same hand, same debt, different decade, same door he never hid
Block got hungrier than the ridge line ever was
Every dealer selling comfort wrapped in daylight cause
I kept the porch light burning, kept the chain up tight
Wolves don't knock in daylight, they wait on you all night
Chorus
