[Verse 1] Copper wire and kettle song Wheels that turned the whole year long Hands that bent but never struck Traded mending for enough We read the fire, not the blade Blessed the metal that we made Swore in copper, not in steel Open palms with naught to steal [Pre-Chorus] But the dark came down the valley With a hunger we had never named Said our peace was just a silence Hungry for the answering flame [Chorus] Now we forge ourselves like iron Beat the softness into stone What was given must be taken We defend it to the bone Tinker hands learn war tonight Hammer falls by firelight [Verse 2] First blood drawn was not our own A child's cry, a burning home They thought us sheep without a spine We found the blade within the pine The wagon circle turned to wall The mending-song became the call What we built, we now unmake We are the wound for mercy's sake [Pre-Chorus] And the dark laughed at our coming Said our kindness made us tame But the forge knows transformation— Peace and violence share a name [Chorus] Now we forge ourselves like iron Beat the softness into stone What was given must be taken We defend it to the bone Tinker hands learn war tonight Hammer falls by firelight [Bridge — meditative] We are not what we were We are not what they made us We are the third thing— The blade that remembers the plow [Spoken/whispered] They wanted monsters We became something worse We became... precise [Final Chorus] Now we walk where shadows gather Where the faithless lose their way Every darkness knows the tinkers— Mending hands that learned to flay We are patience, we are fire We are mercy's sharpened blade And the shadow learns to fear The hollow spaces war has made [Outro] Hammer down... hammer down... The wheel turns... the wheel turns... What was broken... we become...
