**Intro** D Dsus4 D | G Asus4 A **Verse 1** D G D A River runs copper where the checkpoints face the sun, D G Em7 A Market stalls whisper, “Pack it up, the day is done.” Bm G D A Radio static, curfew ticking slow as prayer and bells, Bm G Em7 A Stories in the rooftops no communiqué can tell. **Pre-Chorus** G D/F# Em7 A Dust keeps a tally on the ledgers of the street, G D/F# Em7 A Hope draws a circle where the tired neighbors meet. **Chorus** G D Em7 A Fallujah, hold your breath, sing low and carry on, G D Em7 A Names like lanterns in the dark, first light before the dawn. G D Em7 A I won’t make you just a headline drifting down the page— G D Em7 A D Fallujah, I hear you—river, bridge, and borrowed age. **Verse 2** D G D A Flags turned and turned again, the colors bled to black, D G Em7 A Columns in the boulevards, then columns turning back. Bm G D A Mothers count the doorways till the roll call sounds like rain, Bm G Em7 A Steel remembers footsteps; steel remembers pain. **Pre-Chorus** G D/F# Em7 A Some came carrying orders, some with hammers, bread, G D/F# Em7 A All left shadows on the span, a ledger for the dead. **Chorus** G D Em7 A Fallujah, hold your breath, sing low and carry on, G D Em7 A Names like lanterns in the dark, first light before the dawn. G D Em7 A Not a myth of saints or devils—just the fever and the cost; G D Em7 A D Fallujah, in your heat we count the found and lost. **Bridge** Em7 G D Bm Two-thousand-four wrote iron lessons on that span, Em7 G D A Two-thousand-fourteen, black banners cut the sand. Em7 G D Bm Empires, emblems, acronyms that promise, break, and fade— Em7 G Em7 A People keep on living where the headlines never stayed. **Verse 3 (soft, add harmony each line)** D G D A Call to prayer and sirens share a fragile piece of sky, D G Em7 A Children trace a doorway, chalk stars learning why. Bm G D A Listen for the kettle, for the neighbor’s knocking rhyme— Bm G Em7 A Little songs of ordinary, keeping shape through time. **Chorus (bigger harmonies)** G D Em7 A Fallujah, hold your breath, sing low and carry on, G D Em7 A Names like lanterns in the dark, first light before the dawn. G D Em7 A If I sing you like a promise, let it be this vow: G D Em7 A D To measure you in people, not in maps or war drums now. **Outro** D Dsus4 D G Asus4 A D (hold) (Soft oo-vocals on the tonic; let the guitar ring)
