[Verse 1] There’s a chapel made of cedar on a hill outside the town Where the sky turned red one morning and the silence burned it down There was singing in the rafters, there were children in the choir But the hymn got swallowed whole by the sound of roaring fire [Verse 2] They said the shepherd lost his way, chasing visions in the smoke But I saw lambs behind the gate, and none of them had spoke They called it law, they called it right, said the match was in his hand But I saw the lightning strike while the faithful made their stand [Chorus] Now there’s ashes on the prairie, and ghosts that won’t let go They dance beneath the moonlight, where the wind forgets to blow You can judge a man by fire, or the fear inside your eyes But truth don’t leave no footprints when it walks away disguised [Verse 3] There was a garden in the desert, and they tried to make it bloom Reading verses by the lantern in a long and narrow room Some folks need salvation, others settle for control And some just pull the trigger when the story’s getting old [Bridge] I’ve heard tales of messiahs, and I’ve heard the preacher lie But when the preacher’s voice is silence, who’s left to testify? The children never chose it, the mothers didn’t flee They just prayed the flame would pass them, like the Red Sea [Chorus] Now there’s ashes on the prairie, and smoke in every breath And questions carved in cypress where the law once planted death Some say they saw a phoenix, some say it’s just the flame But either way, the sky still weeps when you whisper that place’s name [Outro] So I’ll sing this blues in mourning, for a field that bore no sin For the echoes of a trumpet that were drowned by the din And if justice wears a blindfold, maybe truth wears one too But the fire knows who started it… and what the smoke still knew. ⸻
