We Knew It Before We Felt It V1

Verse 1 Warnings printed on the package Tiny letters, faded black Everybody heard the rumors Still we lit another match Doctors talking on the television Numbers climbing year by year But smoke looked warm in winter darkness And death still felt too far from here Pre-Chorus Truth arrives in whispers first Quiet as a passing train Most of us keep walking forward Till it learns to speak in names Chorus We knew it before we felt it Heard the storm before the rain Watched the cracks spread through the ceiling Still we called the house safe We knew it before we felt it Read the warnings on the wall But numbers never sounded human Till they came for someone close Verse 2 Maps were glowing on the evening news Lines and arrows crossing seas Politicians spoke of freedom Like a hymn on every street War stayed distant in the language Flags and headlines filled the sky Then empty chairs at family tables Taught the cost of sacrifice Pre-Chorus Truth arrives in whispers first Soft beneath the marching drums But abstraction turns to gravity When the missing don’t come home Chorus We knew it before we felt it Heard the storm before the rain Watched the cracks spread through the ceiling Still we called the house safe We knew it before we felt it Read the warnings on the wall But numbers never sounded human Till they carried someone’s name Bridge Factories bleeding into rivers Cities choking in the heat Everybody saw it coming Nobody believed the speed Maybe humans learn too slowly Maybe comfort blinds the eyes Maybe shared and borrowed stories Keep us sleeping through the fire Final Chorus We knew it before we felt it Felt the tremor in the ground Every generation hears it Few believe it till the sound We knew it before we felt it That’s the tragedy we share Truth can stand in open daylight Still become invisible there Outro Long before the roof collapsed We heard the timber start to groan