Verse
Grandfather cut the lake into bricks before the sun could rise
Ten-foot saw, steam off his breath, frost sealed both his eyes
Floated the blocks on ropes, hauled them up the icehouse stair
Packed in sawdust, sold to houses that never knew he was there
Fingers split like kindling, blood black against the white
Wore three pair of gloves and still lost feeling every night
Said the lake don't forgive you, it just lets you borrow ground
Stack forty blocks by morning or the foreman sends you down
Pre-Chorus
Now I ask what kept him steady, forty seasons on that freeze
He said the cold's a tax you pay if you want to keep the peace
Told me kings don't always sit on velvet, some sit on the ice
Question ain't the weather, it's who's standing at what price
Chorus
I built my seat from frozen water, called it home
Numb hands holding steady what the warm world can't hold
Gray sky above me, ash and ice below the bone
Cold never crowned me king, I earned the frostbitten throne
Verse
Now I'm stacking pallets, freezer aisle, thirty below with the fans
Breath comes out in ghosts, frost collecting on my hands
Same blood, different lake, same hour before the light
Forklift beeping backward through the fog just like a knife
Boss don't know my father's name, don't know the saw he swung
Just knows the boxes move on time before the morning's done
Keep his photo taped inside my locker, cracked and thin
Him standing on the ice like it's a throne he chose to begin
Pre-Chorus
Now I ask myself what's steady, forty seasons feel the same
Different kind of frozen ground but we still keep the name
Question ain't the weather, it's who's standing at what price
Chorus
I built my seat from frozen water, called it home
Numb hands holding steady what the warm world can't hold
Gray sky above me, ash and ice below the bone
Cold never crowned me king, I earned the frostbitten throne
Bridge
Told my son the lake's still out there, frozen different ways
Concrete now instead of water, same debt, same delay
He asked me why we do it, why we choose the cold at all
I said some men melt in comfort, some men learn to stall
The throne was never soft, that was never the design
You don't inherit comfort, only how you hold the line
Chorus
I built my seat from frozen water, called it home
Numb hands holding steady what the warm world can't hold
Gray sky above me, ash and ice below the bone
Cold never crowned me king, I earned the frostbitten throne
