Verse 1

We are gathered at the tables

where the words don't match the hands

Something moves beneath the surface

of agreements, counterplans

The summer heat makes everything feel urgent

makes the skin feel like a warning

We are pressing, we are pressing

through another Tuesday morning

Chorus

Every deal is someone's reckoning

every shield is someone's cost

We are counting what we're bargaining

counting what we almost lost

The gavel falls, the room goes quiet

then somebody walks away

We are mid-sentence, mid-negotiation

stuck between what's owed and what we'll say

Verse 2

Somewhere someone grieves a festival

that ended in the wrong kind of noise

Somewhere someone guards what they created

from the hands that would destroy

The settlements are stacking up like summer clouds

before the weather breaks

We are proving, we are proving

how much pressure a thing takes

Chorus

Every deal is someone's reckoning

every shield is someone's cost

We are counting what we're bargaining

counting what we almost lost

The gavel falls, the room goes quiet

then somebody walks away

We are mid-sentence, mid-negotiation

stuck between what's owed and what we'll say

Bridge

The translator knows the ancient word

for what we're doing now

The hero asks for something real

but no one knows exactly how

We've drawn the routes across the water

we've named the price, we've named the loss

Now we stand in August sunlight

tallying the cost

Outro

We press on

we press on

every table, every sword

we press on

Instrumental Outro

How did it make you feel?

A new song arrives tomorrow.