[Verse 1] They drew a line across the county map And called the hill a place no one should go A weather station watched the cedar gate While survey stakes sank deep beneath the snow [Pre-Chorus] But under every locked and numbered door The ground kept count of what came through before [Chorus] They buried the names beneath the boundary stone They fenced off the fields and they claimed them alone But the old roads run where the new towers rise And the earth keeps its ledger below their bright signs [Verse 2] At Cahokia, the grass conceals the stairs A river bends around the earthen crown The star-forts hold their angles in the rain While polished avenues press the old ground down [Pre-Chorus] A city hums above a buried seam Its engines turning through a borrowed dream [Chorus] They buried the names beneath the boundary stone They fenced off the fields and they claimed them alone But the old roads run where the new towers rise And the earth keeps its ledger below their bright signs [Bridge] Domes without a ledger Spire against the cloud A vanished grid of copper air Still drawing its outline now They called it flood, they called it ruin They sealed the archive, paved the track But every stone remembers pressure And every closed gate faces back [Final Chorus] They buried the names beneath the boundary stone They fenced off the fields and they claimed them alone But the old roads run where the new towers rise And the earth keeps its ledger below their bright signs No map can make the buried disappear No fence can teach the ancient ground to fear [Outro] The gate is shut The soil is wide awake The gate is shut The old lines hold their shape
