Intro
Ticket stub curled soft in the coffee tin lid
Twelve dollars down, the rest on what daddy did
Yard out back holding rust like a secret it kept
A hull under tarp since the summer he wept
Verse
He bought the keel first, said the frame comes second
Worked the graveyard shift so the payment plan beckoned
Plate by plate at the salvage yard, cash on Fridays
Called it his longship, said legends come in installments, not highways
Ash on his knuckles from the torch he'd run
Said a man ain't broke long as the welding's done
Neighbors thought he lost it, chasing driftwood dreams
Didn't know the receipts were stitched into his seams
Gate latch rusted shut on the fence out back
Same one he'd lean on counting what the crew lacked
Scar on his forearm shaped just like the coast
Said the sea don't forgive but it don't ask for the most
Sixteen months of Sundays, one plank at a time
Neighbors watched the skeleton start to climb
I was seven, thought a boat was just a boat
Didn't know he was building the only thing he'd own
Hook
Longship on layaway, paying it in Sundays
Ticket in the drawer where the good silver stays
Hull ain't finished but the debt's almost done
Some men build a legacy one plate, one payment, one
Verse
Grew up, took the torch when his hands went slow
Arthritis in the knuckles where the old scars go
Finished the transom the winter that he died
Painted the name in gold, stood back and cried
Not from the loss but the weight coming clear
Every payment was a prayer he was scared to say here
Sold the tarp for scrap, kept the frame for the yard
Learned that finishing something is the hardest part of hard
Took her out on the bay when the ice broke thin
Engine caught rust but the hull still holds him in
Every plate's a ledger, every seam's a debt paid
Every scar's a receipt from the price that he made
Now I keep the coffee tin where the old stub stays
Twelve dollars down was the start of his praise
Legacy ain't loud, it's a slow kind of gain
Built like a longship, one Sunday, one chain
Hook
Longship on layaway, paying it in Sundays
Ticket in the drawer where the good silver stays
Hull ain't finished but the debt's almost done
Some men build a legacy one plate, one payment, one
Bridge
Some men leave a fortune, some men leave a frame
Mine left me the patience to finish what he'd claim
Ice on the water, gold letters catching light
The boat still floats, so the debt was never really a fight
Outro
Coffee tin's empty now, the stub's gone soft with age
Hull's in the harbor, not the yard, not the page
Paid in full, the name still holds the gold
Longship on layaway — that's the only debt worth owed
