Intro
Rust on the ledger, salt in the hinge of the door
Ironbound docks still hum where my blood came ashore
Every name in this family got forged, not just born
Verse
Great-granddad swung the hammer where the anchor chains bend
Thirty links a shift, hands raw from the trend
Foreman marked the tally with a chisel on tin
One notch for the debt, one notch for the kin
He never learned to read but he could read the burn
Knew the color of the metal when it's ready to turn
Stamped his initials deep where the iron folds twice
Said a name in the steel don't melt away with the ice
Buried in the yard where the barges used to dock
Left a coat full of soot and a family full of stock
We inherited the weight before we learned to walk
Counted generations by the links, not the clock
Mama kept his tools wrapped in an oil-stained sheet
Told me every chain he made still holds somewhere at sea
Said the harbor remembers what the water tried to steal
Every ship that made it home wore a name that we forged in steel
Hook
Same fire, same forge, different hands on the hammer
Every link we strike wears a name that don't stammer
Ironbound blood, we don't break, we get longer
Chain don't snap when the roots get stronger
Verse
Now the docks are condos, the furnace boarded shut
I run a crane downtown, still hauling iron and rust
Same district, different century, same debt to repay
Steel beams instead of anchors, but the weight's the same weight
I clock in at five, watch the skyline catch fire
Copper light on the girders like my great-granddad's pyre
They tore down the forge but the river kept the ledger
The names in the mud are older than any measure
I bring my son to the water, show him where it began
Tell him every scar on my palm is a plan, not a sentence
He asks why we stayed when the whole block left
I tell him roots don't run, son, roots just get deeper set
Every generation adds a link to the chain
Some rust, some hold, some carry the strain
But the ones who forged before us made sure we'd remain
Ironbound in the blood, Ironbound in the name
Hook
Same fire, same forge, different hands on the hammer
Every link we strike wears a name that don't stammer
Ironbound blood, we don't break, we get longer
Chain don't snap when the roots get stronger
Bridge
Found the old ledger buried under the floor
Names I never heard of, debts settled before
Every notch a winter that somebody survived
Turns out legend's just a family that stayed alive
Outro
Salt in the hinge, rust on the door
Same iron, same blood, just a different shore
We don't break, we link
We don't break, we link
