Intro
Lender came by Tuesday with a ledger and a clock
Said the interest grows like frost, compounds in the lock
Every day you breathe is borrowed, every meal's a debt
Some men take the terms, some men don't forget
Verse
My father took a loan when I was three months old
Said the banker smiled wide but his handshake felt cold
Twenty years to pay it back, but the rate kept climbing steep
By the time I learned to walk, we were already deep
He worked the night shift, then he worked the day
Double-shifted just to keep the wolves at bay
I watched him count the coins on the kitchen table, worn
Fingers stained with engine grease, his palms all torn
Ma kept a ledger too, subtracted every cent
Knew the math of survival, where the margin went
I was seven when he told me, son, the debt don't sleep
It follows like a shadow, runs a meter deep
He paid it down to nothing, but it cost him something more
Than the money that he owed them, left him hollowed to the core
Chorus
This is Odin's interest rate, the price of breathing free
Every stone you move today compounds what you'll be
This is Odin's interest rate, compounds what you'll be
Verse
By the time I turned sixteen, I was working in the yard
Hauling scrap and sorting steel, learning labor's language hard
Saw the men around me, some had given up the fight
Some had figured out the game and worked it into night
Foreman told me straight, kid, the debt don't discriminate
Rich or poor, the interest grows, you're always running late
But there's wisdom in the owing, if you learn to read the terms
Every scar across your knuckles is the knowledge that you've earned
I took a different route, I took the burden as my map
Built something from the grind that couldn't trap me in the gap
Paid the debt in full by thirty, but the real cost was the years
All the nights I didn't sleep, all the sacrifice sincere
Chorus
This is Odin's interest rate, the price of breathing free
Every stone you move today compounds what you'll be
This is Odin's interest rate, compounds what you'll be
Bridge
Now I tell my children different, I say the debt's a tool
Not a chain, but something you can study, something you can school
Interest teaches patience, teaches hunger, teaches sight
Teaches you the difference between surviving and the fight
Verse
I'm the lender now, and I remember every mark
Every calculation in the dark, every borrowed spark
But I don't charge the interest to the men who come to me
I charge them with the knowledge that the debt can set you free
Odin took an eye to learn the runes, to see the code
I took the weight of owing just to lighten up the load
For the next man walking in here broken, bent, and late
I say the interest rate's not high, I say the interest rate is fate
Outro
Tuesday's coming round again, the ledger and the clock
But the frost don't hold the same way when you've learned to pick the lock
