Ledger of the Long Winter (Version 2)

Intro

Icehouse door still hangs on one good hinge and half a chain

Sawdust in the floorboards holds the shape of every name

Verse

Grandfather worked the river when the ice was two feet thick

Sawed it into blocks like coffins, hauled 'em fast and quick

Tongs bit steel into the frost, horses breathing steam

Every family owed a summer's worth of frozen dream

Icehouse packed with sawdust, kept the blocks from turning thin

He'd chalk a name each time a wagon came to borrow in

Widow Cole took three blocks in the August that her roof burned

Paid it back in eggs and thread, every debt she ever earned

Some men vanished with the thaw, left their tab in ice and dust

Grandfather never chased them, said the river holds the trust

Said a man who gives away his cold is rich in ways uncounted

Said the frost don't ask for interest, only asks you mounted

On the sled before the dawn breaks, working while the town still dreams

Stack it eight blocks high and pray the roof don't buckle at the seams

I was born up in that icehouse, sawdust settled in my lungs

Learned to read the cold like scripture, learned the weight of debts unsung

Chorus

Ledger of the long winter, every name is in the frost

Ledger of the long winter, keeps the count of what it cost

Ledger of the long winter, ink don't fade, it only freezes

Pay it back when the river thaws and the water finally pleases

Verse

Father watched the trucks bring engines colder than the river's vein

Machines could freeze a ton without the wind or any pain

He kept the tongs up anyway, nailed them to the wall

Said a tool that built a man don't leave him when they call

Trade dried up in sixty-one, the ledger turned to dust

Father sold the horses, kept the names 'cause names you trust

Every debt still open, wrote it new in fresher ink

Said the cold remembers people longer than you'd think

I found the book at twelve years old beneath a rotted floor

Names like Cole and Whitfield, blocks and eggs and thread and more

Some were crossed, some underlined, some had gone half gray

Father said a debt unpaid still teaches you to weigh

Weigh a man by what he gives when winter takes the most