Once we built this ground on fire and stone Hands held fast, no one stood alone Every road led somewhere real Every word was meant to mean We paid our way, we played it straight Watched the towers seal their gates Year by year they closed the sky Sold us fear and called it right ⸻ Now the walls are higher The voices gone The price of breathing Keeps climbing on ⸻ Ravens fly free when the chains are torn When the lies are named, when the truth is sworn You can tax the land, you can steal the flame But you can’t cage wings, you can’t bind the name Ravens fly free through storm and sky We were born to rise, not kneel and die ⸻ Rent like iron around the throat Business bled while kings took notes Roads decay, the debt still grows They feast above while silence knows Pay more. Wait more. Trust less. Bow. ⸻ They don’t hear us They don’t care Counting numbers In gilded air ⸻ Ravens fly free when the chains are torn From the night they rule to the breaking morn You can raise the walls, you can sell the ground But the sky was never something crowned Ravens fly free, hear the people cry We remember how, and we remember why ⸻ Names erased from empty streets Suit-and-tie retreat Votes like ghosts, hands unseen Feeding on the in-between ⸻ Ravens fly free when the chains are gone When the stolen years are finally won We are more than ledgers, more than cost More than everything you lost Ravens fly free, hear history roar You can’t rule forever Nevermore ⸻ We rise.
