Runes in the Ash Ledger

Intro

Soot on the brick where the numbers used to live

Grandfather's forge, ash ledger, nothing to forgive

Every mark he pressed was a name and a debt

Fire took the paper but it never took that yet

Verse

Furnace hissed at five, the gate creaked open like a jaw

Grandfather held the tally stick, pressed marks with a paw

Wet with soot, no ink could hold what iron men owed

Boss kept his books in the office, we kept ours in the coals

Sixty men on the floor, half of them couldn't read

But every one of them knew the rune beside his need

A slash for a loan, a circle for a debt paid back

Cross for a man who didn't make it past the smoke-black

When the mill burned in fifty-four, the papers turned to lace

Insurance men came sniffing, found an empty case

But the brick still stood, the marks still held their shape

Grandfather read it like scripture, no need to escape

He said the fire tests what's written, tests what's true

Anything worth keeping's gotta live in the residue

So he taught me the code before he taught me my name

Said a debt that don't burn is the only real flame

Chorus

Ash don't lie, it just waits to be read

Every rune on the wall got a name and a debt

I don't write what I owe, I just carry the weight

Come collection day, the ledger don't wait

Verse

Now I keep my ledger in my head, no paper trail

Every favor, every scar is a mark I can't fail

Gate's different now, chain-link 'round the block instead of a mill

Plates on the table came from counts I kept still