Echoes After Us

[Verse 1] You grew up in a house full of silence Names on the pictures no one said out loud Carved your vows in the back of a notebook "I break the pattern or I break myself down" [Pre-Chorus] Every scar in your family line shines like a street of warning signs You’re trembling, still you step outside still you step outside (oh) [Chorus] This is our legacy, not what they left for me It’s what we’re choosing in the dark tonight Sorrow in every vein still we can shift the frame Turn all this aching into guiding light We are the echo, not the chain We are the echo, not the chain [Verse 2] I grew up where the anger was holy Raised on the sermon of "never be weak" Now your soft hands on my knuckles of thunder Say, "Lay the weapon down and learn to speak" [Pre-Chorus] Every word that I never said burned a ghost in my own head You answer with a steady breath pull me back from the edge (hey) [Chorus] This is our legacy, not what they wrote in stone We’re rewriting on a sleepless night Tears on the kitchen floor laughing through every war Two quiet rebels holding on too tight We are the echo, not the chain We are the echo, not the chain [Bridge] [Beat drops to sparse piano and synth bass pulse] (Male vocal) I won’t worship all that suffering won’t pass that crown down to our kids (Female vocal) If I forgive, it won’t erase it but it unties my own wrists [Gang vocals + choir] We break, we bend, we build again We break, we bend, we build again [Chorus] This is our legacy, more than a family name It’s every "sorry" that we learn to say Hands that refuse to bruise hearts that refuse to bruise Choosing a different end to yesterday We are the echo, not the chain We are the echo, not the chain [Outro] [Choir swells, gang vocals low behind] Soft as a promise hard as a prayer If anyone asks us we’ll say we were there We were the echo, not the chain We were the echo, not the chain (oh yeah)