[Verse]
Gray after gray
Prey after prey
Morning to morning
Day after day
Let's let bygones be bygones
Blackening the skies
In the bygone style of
Soon-to-be-gone monarch butterflies
Climb up the butte
Stare at the sun-drenched river
Clench your lids
Hurry
Carry the sight
[Pre-Chorus]
To the boardwalk
Lift your chin up
Open your eyes
See a shadow
Watch as it lightens and dies
See a shadow
Watch as it lightens and dies
See a shadow
Watch as it lightens and dies
[Chorus]
How can I love someone I've
Only seen in a painting?
How can I love a voice I've
Only heard described?
[Post-Chorus]
How, on the other hand, can
You kill somebody who's right in front of
You seem to have no trouble at all doing it
You seem to have no trouble at all
[Verse]
Straw after straw
Back after back
Mourning to mourning
Caulking the cracks
Let's let bygones be
Tattooed upon our eyes
Let's let the truths be
Louder than the lies
[Pre-Chorus]
I feel so ashamed to think
I used to say
It wasn't your land
And I didn't take it away
It wasn't your land
And I didn't take it away
It wasn't your land
And I didn't take it away
[Instrumental]
[Refrain]
White appetites
Killed the passenger pigeon
White fashion
Killed the Carolina parakeet
White silence
Kills people of color
White power
Will kill the very current it ignited
My own white power
Will kill a current too
If I'm not prepared to fight it
[Verse]
See a pipeline
Run along the oil-drenched river
See us promise
Changes that we don't deliver
See a sacred place
Watch us colonize
[Pre-Chorus]
The boardwalk
See a fallen cup
Someone carried that cup
When it was full
It must have taken every ounce of strength
To pour the liquid
Down their gullet
Yet a cis hetero white man
Emptying his gun
Seems to have no trouble at all
Carrying it for a future bullet
Seems to have no trouble at all