Stone Upon Stone

Lyrics

[Intro]
Cold ash on my boots, the door burned to bone
Smoke writes our names in a tongue I don't own
Grey morning is a blade on the breath that we hold
I touch the black timber and it comes away cold

[Verse 1]
We stand where the hearth once sang, now a charcoal mouth
Char hung like winter on the ribs of this house
I taste last night’s embers, iron and rain
My voice is a cracked board, splinter and grain
The gods don’t answer; they stare from the soot
Where the cradle turned cinder, I steady my foot
No tears, just the wind combing ashes of bread
I count what is missing, I count who is dead

[Pre-Chorus]
But first light climbs the hill like a scar turning skin
A rope bites my shoulder; I lean and begin
If night took the roof, then morning takes hold
With blistered hands empty, we carry the world

[Chorus]
Lift the beam to the shoulder, breathe
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Name every nail with the names we keep
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Blood in the grain, not the fire’s to keep
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Wall for the wind, roof for the rain
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
(hey!) Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)

[Drop]

[Verse 2]
Sap runs like tears from the fresh green wood
I taste the bright sting, and I know we are good
My palms split open, little red suns
Each blister a promise to finish what’s begun
Neighbors come quiet, their boots finding time
We pass weight like water, we shoulder the line
A child brings a hammer with yesterday’s soot
I smile through the smoke and I anchor my foot

[Pre-Chorus 2]
The slope is a throat, but we sing up its spine
We learned in the burial how to carry the time
If fire was a mouth, we answer with iron
If sorrow was winter, our breath is the fire

[Chorus 2]
Lift and drive, count and breathe
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Say the lost, let the beam believe
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Mark the door with the hours we bled
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
House of the living, roof for the dead
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
(hey!) Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)

[Drop 2]

[Bridge]
I remember the birch and the earth that we turned
The same hands that buried the dead when we burned
Lay flat on the plank, feeling pulse under oak
I whisper a vow not a flame ever broke
If grief is a sea, then the boat is our name
Let the keel find the water, let the ribs find the frame

[Chant Break]
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Hold— (we raise it again)
Drive— (we raise it again)
Breathe— (we raise it again)
Ho— Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Lift— (we raise it again)
Name— (we raise it again)
Hey! Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)

[Final Chorus]
Raise the roofbeam against the grey morning sky
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Smoke on our tongues, but the song will not die
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
Blistered palms, green wood, iron and thread
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
By ash and by oath and the words of our dead
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
We are the wall when the weather turns black
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
We are the roof that the storm can’t crack
Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)
(hey!) Stone upon stone— (we raise it again)

[Outro]
The frame stands breathing, a spine in the wind
A single nail answers the dawn like a hymn
These are the hands that buried our dead
These are the hands driving nails instead