Verse
Grandfather skinned the last wolf off the ridge in sixty-one
Said the mountain don't forgive but the mountain can be won
Stitched the pelt to canvas with a needle and a prayer
Wore it through three winters just to prove that he was there
Steel plates bolted to the gatepost, humming with the cold
Left the coat in cedar, said it'll fit you when you're grown
Sleeves too long, collar heavy, felt like carrying a throne
Now I walk the scrapyard fence at four with a flashlight beam
Steam off my breath collecting like a debt I've never seen
Dogs bark at the shadows but the shadows don't care
Frost sits on the wolfskin like it's earning its share
I count the nights in scratches on the underside of the sleeve
Forty-one and counting, and the cold ain't learned to leave
Pre-Chorus
Tell me why the heaviest things are the ones we choose to hold
Tell me why the coldest nights are the ones that make you whole
Chorus
I wear the weight of the wolfskin, not the trophy, just the debt
Every claw stitched in the collar is a promise I ain't met
Cold don't scare me, hunger taught me how the season ends
I carry the whole pack forward, wearing where I've been
Verse
Ash from the burn barrel settles soft like snow that lied
Gate latch frozen shut, I thaw it with my palm and pride
Kid tried to hop the fence in March, thought the yard was free
Looked me dead in the collar, saw the teeth, and let it be
I ain't never bit a soul, but the wolfskin does the work
Some men wear their armor loud, I wear mine and stay alert
My daughter asked why the coat smell like woodsmoke and old rain
I told her that's your great-grandfather, that's the mountain in the grain
She'll get it when she's grown, sleeves too long, same as me
Heavy ain't the burden, heavy's how you learn to see
Forty-one nights turned to eight hundred on the sleeve
Still counting every winter that the wolfskin let me leave
Pre-Chorus
Tell me why the heaviest things are the ones we choose to hold
Tell me why the coldest nights are the ones that make you whole
Chorus
