Intro
Snow packed the fence line, blue in the moon's low light
Grandfather's lantern swinging, watching the wolf tracks write
Their story in the frost before the sun could erase
He said some winters test you, some winters test the place
Verse
Nineteen and forty-one, the flock down to eleven
He counted lambs by lantern like counting sins to heaven
Wolves came close enough to fog the porch glass with breath
He stood there with a rifle he never wanted to test
Said the weak one goes first, that's the math of the cold
Gave the sickest lamb up so the rest wouldn't fold
Ribs showed through the wool like slats in a broken gate
He buried that lamb himself, called the loss a down payment on fate
Three nights straight he watched, ice forming on his lashes
Barn roof creaking like it carried all his family's ashes
By spring the pack moved on, the fence line still stood true
He said surviving ain't the shot, it's what the shot cost you
Told my mother, she told me, sitting by the stove
Said a wolf winter comes for every house, every road
Question ain't if it's coming, it's what you're willing to give
He gave a lamb to the frost so the rest of us could live
Chorus
Wolf winter don't ask, it just circles the door
Teaches you what you kept and what you gave for
I carry that frost like a coat I can't shed
Every howl in the dark was a lesson I bled
Verse
Two thousand and nine, my own kind of blizzard came
Landlord's letter frozen to the door with my last name
Fridge running empty, radiator coughing steam
Little brother asking why the milk tastes like a dream
I did what the old man did, gave up my share first
Told him I ate at work, let the lie feed his thirst
Sold my one good coat for groceries and a bus pass
Walked through February wearing anger like glass
Wolves in my winter wore suits, carried clipboards not claws
Circled the porch of my mother's house looking for flaws
I stood watch like he stood watch, same lantern, different light
Learned the cold don't care whose blood you bled that night
By March we still had the lease, still had four walls whole
Didn't win the winter, just outlasted its toll
Now when it snows I hear that gate creak in my chest
Understand now why he called surviving a kind of rest
Chorus
Wolf winter don't ask, it just circles the door
Teaches you what you kept and what you gave for
I carry that frost like a coat I can't shed
Every howl in the dark was a lesson I bled
Bridge
My daughter asked me why I keep a lantern by the bed
I told her every family's got a winter that ain't dead
It waits inside the walls, it waits inside the name
Waits to see if what we built can carry through the same
I said one day it's yours to stand watch through the night
Not to win against the wolves, just to keep the fence line tight
Outro
Snow's falling soft tonight, no tracks along the door
That don't mean the winter's gone, just means it's kept the score
I keep the lantern lit, I keep the story warm
