Verse 1

We built the rooms and called them ours

We watched the walls go up for years

The children pressed their faces there

And no one logged their fear

The ground beneath the oldest streets

Cracks open without warning

A summer Wednesday, thick with heat

And something overdue for mourning

Chorus

We are the ones who knew

We are the ones who signed the forms

Who named the thing and turned away

Who sanctioned and were sanctioned in return

The ones who knew

The ones who built the room

And handed over the key

Verse 2

Out on the water, numbers climb

The tallies no one asked to keep

A drummer's hands at last go still

The blues absorbing what we grieve

Somewhere a president declares

New fortune in the ancient earth

Somewhere a mother begged for help

And no one measured what that's worth

Chorus

We are the ones who knew

We are the ones who signed the forms

Who named the thing and turned away

Who sanctioned and were sanctioned in return

The ones who knew

The ones who built the room

And handed over the key

Bridge

Drones trace borders in the night

The warnings issued, warnings stored

We pledge allegiance to the cause

Then argue at the courthouse door

The Lydian moment — when we almost

Believed that grace could intercede

Then the chord resolves to nothing clean

Just what we owe and what we need

Outro

We are still here

Still tallying

Still signing our names to the day

Instrumental Outro

How did it make you feel?

A new song arrives tomorrow.