8. Ash on Their Names

[Verse 1] They came with a book And a hungry grin Names in the dust And a sin for a sin Girls in the rafters Women at prayer One wrong glance And they dragged us there [Pre-Chorus] Hands on the latch Boots on the floor Truth got smaller Behind that door [Chorus] Ash on their names Ash on their names They lit the blame And called it clean Ash on their names Ash on their names We were not smoke We were the screams [Verse 2] The well kept its silence The kitchen kept gold The wife kept her bruises The baby stayed cold If you spoke soft They said you were sly If you spoke loud They said you must die [Pre-Chorus] Tongues like a knife Judges like stone They fed on fear And called it a home [Chorus] Ash on their names Ash on their names They lit the blame And called it clean Ash on their names Ash on their names We were not smoke We were the screams [Bridge — stripped back, almost whispered] Remember our faces The thread and the bread The hands that shook But still never bent Rebecca Nurse Sarah Good Bridget Bishop Mary Easty Not cursed, not wicked Not made to be burned Just women alive And a world unlearned Martha Corey Martha Carrier Sarah Wildes Susanna Martin Remember their names Remember them still The women they buried Could never be killed [Instrumental Rise — low drums, distant female voices] Alice Parker Ann Pudeator Wilmot Redd Margaret Scott Names once spoken Like words of a curse Names now carried Beyond the earth [Final Chorus — full, powerful] Ash on their names Ash on their names They lit the blame And called it clean Ash on their names Ash on their names We were not smoke We were the screams Rebecca Nurse Sarah Good Bridget Bishop Mary Easty Martha Corey Martha Carrier Sarah Wildes Susanna Martin Say every name Say every name Till the dark turns weak Say every name Until the silence speaks [Final Refrain — voices layered] Alice Parker Ann Pudeator Wilmot Redd Margaret Scott Say every name. Say every name. [Outro — one trembling voice] They were not curses. They were not monsters. They were women. They lived. They loved. They suffered. They were here. Remember their names. [Long silence]