[Verse 1] They told me I was holy, carved from something more Untouchable, unbreakable, above the common floor My rights were written golden, my worth beyond compare No hand could ever move me from my sanctified square [Pre-Chorus] But the walls that keep the danger out Keep the helping hands away And the crown that marks me sacred Gets heavier every day [Chorus] We're drowning in our dignity, dying on our thrones Too precious to be touched — just monuments of bone Five could live if one were spent, but the rules say we can't choose So we worship our protection from the lives we'd rather lose [Verse 2] I watched them fall like dominoes, each one beyond my reach The cure was in another's veins, the rule was in our speech One body could have saved them all, one sacrifice, one cost But the sacred wall between us let the saveable be lost [Chorus] We're drowning in our dignity, dying on our thrones Too precious to be touched — just monuments of bone Five could live if one were spent, but the rules say we can't choose So we worship our protection from the lives we'd rather lose [Verse 3] Imagine that we didn't know in which body we'd be born Whose face we'd wear, whose life we'd live, whose pain we'd come to mourn A coin still spinning in the dark, no name yet to defend We'd be as likely those who fall as those whose hands extend [Chorus 2] I'd sign the contract differently if I knew I'd draw the lot Of the dying and the desperate, of the ones the rules forgot Behind the veil where no one knows what fate will yet befall We'd choose the hands that reach for us — not rights that let us fall [Verse 4] We grant the dying dog the mercy of a gentler end But tell the pleading father that his life's not his to spend We give the creatures in our care the kindness we deny To the very ones whose "dignity" we say we sanctify [Bridge - clean] Go seal the fiddle in its case, Safe at last from touch and tune — I'd rather be an instrument Than an idol in its tomb [Final Chorus] I'm stepping off my pedestal, reaching out my hand Worth more in what I offer up than what I can demand Let the sacred walls come tumbling down around our feet We're worth more in the rescue than enshrined and obsolete
