Girl on Fire

She wore heartbreak like a hand-me-down coat Threads comin’ loose at the seams of her hope Every “almost” left a bruise in bloom Like wildflowers growin’ in a motel room She kept losin’ bets to the house of fate Counted rainstorms by the rust on the gate Mirror said, “Girl, you’re all smoke and scars” But coal makes diamonds under pressure, darlin’ hearts do hard Pre-Chorus So she swept up the ashes Of every goodbye Lit a match with her middle finger Held it up to the sky Chorus Now she’s a girl on fire in a field of gasoline Dancin’ through the wreckage like a small-town homecomin’ queen Turned her broken pieces into bullets, her tears into wine Built a bonfire future from the fault lines behind Yeah, she gathered every ember they left in her dark Fed ’em to the engine of her runaway heart Everybody talks when a small-town flame gets higher Funny how lost girls always make the best wildfires Verse 2 Used to fold herself small like a roadside map For those who only loved her in between the cracks They took pieces like a pawn shop trade Now she wears her pain bespoke, custom-made There’s a rebel hymn in her rearview glass Baptized in the smoke of her former past Every backroad memory, every scream behind closed doors Just another log she’s throwin’ on forevermore Pre-Chorus Now the cold can come get her She ain’t scared of the frost ’Cause the hardest winter she survived Was the one inside her thoughts Chorus Now she’s a girl on fire in a field of gasoline Dancin’ through the wreckage like a small-town homecomin’ queen Turned her broken pieces into bullets, her tears into wine Built a bonfire future from the fault lines behind Yeah, she gathered every ember they left in her dark Fed ’em to the engine of her runaway heart Lit a match, threw it on the line Of ants draggin’ gasoline all through my mind Watched those little demons scatter in the glow Funny how fire knows what mercy don’t They’d been buildin’ kingdoms in the walls of my head Feedin’ on the doubt and the things unsaid So I let the whole nest learn what a spark can do Sometimes burnin’ it down is how somethin’ breaks through Everybody talks when a small-town flame gets higher Funny how lost girls always make the best wildfires Bridge They mistook survival for weakness Mistook silence for shame But you can only strike a match so many times Before it learns its own flame Now the smoke on the horizon Ain’t a warning sign It’s just her burnin’ brighter Than the town that left her behind Final Chorus She’s a girl on fire, no, she don’t need savin’ now Made a crown from sparks they stirred up tryin’ to hold her down Every loss, every leaving, every long black night Was tinder waitin’ patient for the heat of the perfect strike Yeah, she gathered every ember they left in her dark Now she’s writing her name across the sky in flames Everybody talks when a small-town flame gets higher Funny how broken girls become the best wildfires