Black Mesa Burial

[VERSE 1] The mountain came down like judgment day Coal dust filled his lungs, no light remained Brother's hand in his, then gone to black The only soul who walked from hell came back Twenty men went in, just one walked free That lone man carries death across the lea [CHORUS] Down in the valley where the vultures cry Black Mesa took what wasn't hers to dine He's bringing him home on his shoulder blade Every step a penance to be paid And the desert sun shows no mercy today [VERSE 2] They were boys when Daddy broke his back The younger said "never the mines," but fate drew them back With a wife with child, and empty promises Now blood seeps through the canvas kiss The company man said "Leave him down below" But he swore on Mother's grave he's going home [BRIDGE] The sun beats like a hammer on the anvil of his skull His shadow stretches longer as his strength begins to dull Dead voices haunt the canyons, whispering his name "The wages of our sin is death, but who's to bear the blame?" He falls to his knees in the burning sand His brother was always the better man [VERSE 3] Three days now, his shoulders torn to bone Buzzards circle knowing flesh from stone Their father's land just beyond that ridge He'll dig the grave beneath the cottonwood Where they carved their names in boyhood days Before the mountain claimed its deadly wage [FINAL CHORUS] Down in the valley where the shadows lie Black Mesa stole what God alone decides He's brought him home on blistered feet The debt is paid, but never complete And his daughter will know the truth someday [OUTRO] He lays him down in sacred ground The shovel's toll a hollow sound Like pickaxes in a collapsing mine The earth reclaims what was always divine