Chains on the River

Lyrics

Verse 1
Salt in the wound
Wood on the skin
Names got stripped down
Then stuffed in the wind

Iron on wrists
Dust in the lungs
Mothers still calling
For sons and for sons

No room for mercy
No place to hide
Moon over water
Still black outside

Feet on the deck
Blood on the grain
They wrote our pain
Like it was a chain

Pre-Chorus
Hear that cry go low
Travel through the dark
Every broken link
Still leaves a mark

Chorus
Chains on the river
Chains in my chest
They tried to bury us
We still stand the test
Chains on the river
Say our names again
They sold our bodies
Couldn’t kill the kin

Verse 2
Fields full of silence
Hands full of sweat
Back bent from morning
But we ain't done yet

Songs in the night
Tapped through the wall
One little rhythm
Could carry us all

Ash in the distance
Fire in the eye
Hope was a thread
That refused to die

I hear the old world
Still call us “less”
We turned that lie
Into witness and breath

Pre-Chorus
Hear that cry go low
Travel through the dark
Every broken link
Still leaves a mark

Chorus
Chains on the river
Chains in my chest
They tried to bury us
We still stand the test
Chains on the river
Say our names again
They sold our bodies
Couldn’t kill the kin

Bridge
From coast to cane row
From boat to bone
We kept a flame
In the marrow of home

Not just sorrow
Not just scars
We are the memory
That outlives the stars

Chorus
Chains on the river
Chains in my chest
They tried to bury us
We still stand the test
Chains on the river
Say our names again
They sold our bodies
Couldn’t kill the kin