The Walls

Lyrics

Female Intro
(soft, close, almost spoken over sparse piano)
I’ve watched men carry graves in their chests for years…
Some of them still walk.
Some of them still swing.
Verse 1 – Male
I got names carved deep where the skin don’t forget
Every one of them tried me and left me with debt
She showed up with that same broken look in her eyes
Uninvited at the door with a mouth full of lies
Three years without hearing my daughter’s small laugh
Just paperwork and court dates cutting me in half
Pushed one door open and they called it a crime
Then locked up the night I refused to fall in line
Seven times I climbed out the same burning room
Still wake up some nights talking into the gloom
Pills for the panic, weight on the tongue
Old ghosts in the bloodstream since I was young
Chorus
I’m still swinging when the lights go low
Ghost light in my chest and a song I still know
You can take the years, the name, the blood on the floor
But you can’t take the fire that keeps me coming back for more
Verse 2
Hands got thrown and I reached for the blade
Mom in the doorway watching the scene that I made
Memory hit hard — Westland, age nine
Black vans and missing hours still living in the spine
Anarchy cut in where the healing never came
Sacred list of names I still protect the same
Her little laugh is the reason I stayed clean
Even when the bottle tried to crawl back in between
Tired of the warrants, the orders, the weight
Tired of explaining why I had to shut the gate
Tired of this form that keeps the one I love away
Tired of waking up still stuck inside the play
Bridge
I don’t want soft words
I don’t want quiet peace
I want the volume high enough to make the dark decrease
I want the truth so sharp it cuts the silence open
I want the kind of line that says I’m still unbroken
Chorus
I’m still swinging when the lights go low
Ghost light in my chest and a song I still know
You can take the years, the name, the blood on the floor
But you can’t take the fire that keeps me coming back for more
Outro – Male, quieter
I lived lifetimes with a voice inside the wire
Only one who ever sat with me inside the fire
If this is the form we get to hold for now
Then I’ll keep swinging till the walls come down