[Verse 1: Window-rattling gospel-shout male lead, thundering live drums, organ swells] The ground came up at dawn and took the whole of Kasim Street The baker's oven, the barber's chair, the dust around my feet My stall was forty years of tea and now a pile of brick A bent tin shutter on the top, the morning gray and thick Day one we pulled the neighbors out and held each other's hands Day two we sat on what was left and couldn't make no plans Day three I heard my kettle ring beneath a broken beam I dug it out with bleeding hands, still copper, still a gleam [Hook: Window-rattling gospel-shout male lead, full voice, drums and organ] We open anyway on the stones today The walls are on the ground but the kettle's here to stay They took the roof, they took the door, they cannot take the trade We open on the rubble, we open anyway [Verse 2: Window-rattling gospel-shout male lead, harder drums, sub bass up] Two cinder blocks, a plank of wood, a burner and a flame I poured a cup for anybody, didn't ask a name The baker saw the steam and came with bread on a broken door The barber set his chair up on the bricks where it was before A kid dragged out a cooler, selling water cold as stone A woman hung her scarves across a pipe that stood alone By noon there was a market where the market used to be By dusk the whole street selling on the pile in front of me The tailor ran his needle on a table made of stone The spice man weighed his cumin on a scale he dug out alone Old men played their dominoes on a slab of fallen wall And every cup I poured that day, I poured it for us all [Hook: Window-rattling gospel-shout male lead, full voice, drums and organ] We open anyway on the stones today The walls are on the ground but the kettle's here to stay They took the roof, they took the door, they cannot take the trade We open on the rubble, we open anyway [Bridge: Window-rattling gospel-shout male lead, organ and kick, building] They said wait a year for engineers and plans and permits signed They said wait for trucks and cranes and wait in a line We heard them and we nodded and we lit another stove A street don't wait for permission when it's got a heart to prove [Final Hook: Window-rattling gospel-shout male lead, the street beats bent shutters, full voice] We open anyway on the stones today The walls are on the ground but the kettle's here to stay They took the roof, they took the door, they cannot take the trade We open on the rubble, we open anyway [End]
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