## [Intro] *[Gramophone hiss, distant ballroom piano, low drone, slow waltz pulse]* [whisper] Round and round... above the ground... [ad-lib] Ahh... still alive... --- ## [Verse 1] I saw it breathe its final breath Then fold itself into the dead The room went quiet, candle-thin Like mercy never entered in One by one, they lose their lives While we keep sharpening our knives Here from this perch, we watch below And learn what hunger makes us know [ad-lib] One by one... one by one... --- ## [Pre-Chorus] I hate to say your end feeds mine Your silence buys my borrowed time The poor survive on scraps and smoke On broken bread and bitter hope We make a hymn from what we grieve We make our art from what must leave Every life is built on endings Every blessing comes with teeth --- ## [Chorus] We are the vultures Somehow still alive Dancing in the ashes Only cunning survives We are the vultures Circling the sky Your death will let us thrive Your death will let us thrive [ad-lib] Still alive... still alive... --- ## [Verse 2] I saw the cities lose their names I saw the rich become the flames Their golden rooms, their velvet beds Now ballroom dust above the dead Humans crawl from tragedy With dirty hands and memory We stitch a future out of bone And call the graveyard home [ad-lib] We are so lucky... God, we are so lucky... --- ## [Pre-Chorus 2] I hate to say your end feeds mine I hate the truth, but still I dine The world went dark, the feast was laid And we survived what others paid We make a hymn from what we grieve We paint with ashes on our sleeves Every life is built on endings Every heartbeat begs reprieve --- ## [Final Chorus] We are the vultures Somehow still alive Dancing in the ashes Only cunning survives We are the vultures Dancing with the dead We only lived because the feast Was laid before us instead We are the vultures Blessed and terrified Your death will let us thrive Your death will let us thrive --- ## [Outro] *[Ballroom fades into drone, piano slows, gramophone crackle returns]* [whisper] Every life... built on endings... [whisper] We survive... because something didn’t... [ad-lib] Ahh... still alive... [whisper] We are the vultures... we are still alive...
