We Fight, We Rise

Intro

Caught in the cold of the morning

Hands like maps with the lines of old promises

We count the cost in quiet things — in holes on coats, in names on stones

Oh-oh, oh-oh

Verse

They told us patience was a virtue, but patience was a chain

We learned to fold our anger into small goodbyes and paperwork

The kitchen clock kept time for other people's orders

While the radio played a song about someone else's summer

I keep a photograph folded behind my teeth (behind my teeth)

So the memory doesn't fall out when I smile

Pre-chorus

There are miles between what we know and what they say

There are nights we burn our fears like paper, watch them turn to ash (watch them burn)

But standing in the ruin of what was sold as safety

I feel the slow return — the slow return

Chorus

We fight for the sky we were promised — we fight, we fall, we rise

We fight for the names that go unsung — we fight, we fall, we rise

Oh-oh, oh-oh

We lift our small loud voices — yeah (yeah), we lift them to the light

We fight for the right to breathe — we fight, we fall, we rise

Verse

My sister keeps a scar she won't show the kids

Says it's a map of a morning she won't ever trace again

My father hums at night like he's counting the losses

Like a man counting coins to buy back a childhood

We trade our best smiles for a moment of safety

We trade our mouths for quiet so the doors don't slam

But under every closed room there's a plan for leaving

Under every closed room there's a plan for leaving

Pre-chorus

There are words we choke on because they're heavier than water

There are hands that learn to stitch hope into sleeves (into sleeves)

When everything you own is a reason to be watched

You learn to love the sound of your own feet leaving

Chorus

We fight for the sky we were promised — we fight, we fall, we rise

We fight for the names that go unsung — we fight, we fall, we rise

Oh-oh, oh-oh

We lift our small loud voices — yeah (yeah), we lift them to the light

We fight for the right to breathe — we fight, we fall, we rise

Bridge

Hold my name like a letter folded inside a coat

When the wind takes everything, keep this small hope

If they break the windows, we will still sing through the hole

If they take the day, we'll claim the morning back again (back again)

Ta-ta-touch the place where grief becomes resolve

Ta-ta-touch — ta-ta-touch

Chorus

We fight for the sky we were promised — we fight, we fall, we rise

We fight for the names that go unsung — we fight, we fall, we rise

Oh-oh, oh-oh

We lift our small loud voices — yeah (yeah), we lift them to the light

We fight for the right to breathe — we fight, we fall, we rise