Intro
Valknut on the chain, three knots pulled tight
Grandpa cut it out of tin under the kitchen light
Said every triangle's a door that a dead man walks through
I wear it like a debt that I'm still paying due
Verse
First knot tied the night the landlord changed the lock
Slept in the Buick with the heater on a knot
Momma sold her ring for a plate of eggs and rice
I ate it slow like it was the only meal that's nice
Second knot came harder, county gave me a number
Cell block six, radiator hum like distant thunder
Learned to fold a letter into something like a prayer
Read it by the light that slipped under the door there
Third knot burned the trailer down on Ash Street in July
Watched the smoke write cursive letters climbing up the sky
Lost the photo of my father, kept the frame though it's charred
Said the frame remembers even when the picture's scarred
Three knots, three graves I walked out of standing
Ink across my collarbone where the chain keeps landing
Every triangle's a door, every door was locked
I'm the key that grew from the metal that I fought
Chorus
Valknut in my chain, three knots hold what I've been
Every closed door taught me how a warrior begins
It ain't the shine, it's the weight of who I used to be
I carry them like witnesses so the dead can walk with me
Verse
Now the young ones ask me why I wear the triangles three
I tell them every corner is a version of history
One for the boy who begged the guard to let the letter through
