Intro
Ledger bound in wolfskin, spine cracked like a jaw
Grandfather wrote in ash what the bank refused to draw
Every entry balanced, not with coin but with the cost
Some debts get paid in silver, some get paid in frost
Verse
Nineteen-forty winter, snow up past the gate
He owed the mill his harvest, nothing left upon the plate
So he walked the tree line, checked the traps at dawn
Wolf blood on his knuckles by the time the light was gone
Skinned it in the shed, hands too cold to feel the blade
Nailed the hide to settle what the harvest hadn't paid
Mill man took the pelt, marked the ledger with a line
Said a wolf's worth thirty bushels if you catch it right in time
Grandpa caught eleven 'fore the thaw came through in March
Wore the scars like stripes, said the cold don't feel like hurt when you're starched
Passed the book to daddy, told him keep the numbers square
Every man's a debtor, question's what you got to spare
Daddy paid in labor when the pelts got hard to find
Broke his back on gravel roads to keep the ledger aligned
Handed it to me with ash still on the seam
Said the balance never closes, boy, it just changes team
Chorus
Every debt gets paid in something — mine got paid in hide
Wolfskin ledger keeps the score of everything I tried
Ash where the ink should be, scars where the sum should close
That's the only interest that a hungry family knows
Verse
Now the traps are different, but the winter's still as cold
Corner store extending credit that the bank would never hold
I don't sign my name, I sign it with the work I put in
Every favor that I owe becomes a favor that I win
Block gates got the same rust as that mill man's ledger drawer
Every plate I filled for somebody settled something more
They call it hustle, I call it inheritance in code
Grandpa's wolfskin logic riding shotgun down the road
Some nights I'm the creditor, some nights I owe the debt
Keep the numbers moving so my people never forget
Ash on my knuckles same as ash was on his hide
Difference is the paperwork, the hunger's still inside
I don't flex what's borrowed, I return it with the years
Every scar's a receipt for the interest paid in tears
Ledger's getting heavier, but the binding's holding strong
Already passed a page along to the next one coming on
Chorus
Every debt gets paid in something
