[Dry spoken voice, broken piano keys, unstable timing] When did we stop loving children? Was it 12? 14? The day their bodies changed? The day their tears got inconvenient? Or was it the day... We stopped remembering We were children too? [Verse 1] There's a little girl upstairs In a house without a name Waiting by the window While the seasons rearrange A suitcase full of memories A heart she couldn't pack Everybody said keep moving Nobody said come back She learned to be her mother Learned to swallow every cry Smiled for all the strangers Who never asked her why The calendar kept turning Like it had somewhere to go Nobody told the little girl Growing isn't letting go [Pre-Chorus] Who held her when she trembled? Who believed her when she spoke? Who taught her love was something More than promises and smoke? Who decided pain was shameful? Tell me, when did that begin? [Abrupt eruption, jagged rhythm, nearly shouted, clashing piano] Make sisterhood safe again Let the broken-hearted in Not another perfect promise Not another painted grin Put your weapons on the ground Let the truth come pouring out Let her cry, let her scream Let her speak without a doubt If you cannot heal her hurting You can hold her through the rain Oh sisters, make sisterhood safe again [Verse 2] There's a woman down the highway Looking for somewhere to land Trading pieces of tomorrow For a moment she can stand Don't tell me what she should've Don't tell me what you'd do You don't know the road she traveled Or the hell she stumbled through Maybe somebody could've listened Maybe somebody once tried Maybe love got lost in places Where she learned she had to hide I won't pretend to know her Or the weight beneath her skin But I wonder how much gentler This old world could have been [Dead silence, ugly piano cluster, bitter half-laugh, spoken accusation] We call them troubled Crazy, wicked, weak But how many times did we ask What they needed Before they stopped trying to speak? [Verse 3] There's a woman in the mirror With a child behind her eyes Fifty winters on her shoulders Still rehearsing her goodbyes Another in the doorway With a story she won't tell She knows how people whisper When a woman isn't well One was silenced by her family One was shamed for being wild One was told she'd lost her value When she wasn't someone's child One kept saving everybody Till she had no place to fall One was loved when she was useful Was she ever loved at all? [Pre-Chorus] When did love become a bargain? When did kindness have a price? When did honesty become a crime And silence a sacrifice? If you preach about compassion But you turn away from pain What's your love really made of When there's nothing left to gain? [Chorus, layered women] Make sisterhood safe again Let the frightened women in Not another public blessing With a private little sin Don't just call her sister Then abandon her in rain If you say that love is sacred Let your actions speak its name You don't have to know her story You don't have to share her pain Just don't make her beg for shelter Make sisterhood safe again [Almost inaudible whisper, bowed strings scrape, irregular pause] There's an attic full of memories A child behind the door A woman on the staircase Who can't run away no more Every winter, every voice Every time she was called bad Every time she asked for comfort And got silence back instead Thousands of years in the attic Maybe hundreds, maybe one What good is tomorrow If we abandon everyone? [Build] What if the woman you're judging Is the girl you used to be? What if the hand you're refusing Is the hand that sets you free? What if one day you're the stranger Standing broken in the rain? Would you want another woman To look away and do the same? [Verse 4] I don't need another savior I don't need a perfect friend I need someone who can listen When the happy stories end Someone gentle with the truth Someone brave enough for sorrow Someone who can love the woman And the child she brings tomorrow I'll try to be that person Though I stumble, though I fail Put another chair beside me Let her tell her broken tale Not to fix her, not to claim her Not to tell her what to do Just to say I hear you You deserve love too [chaotic, contradictory rhythms, discordant] Make sisterhood safe again Let the forgotten children in All the mothers without mothers All the hearts beneath the skin No more ranking people's suffering No more shame for growing old No more turning wounds to weapons No more leaving girls in the cold We can disagree and still be tender We can listen through the pain We can break the chain of silence Make sisterhood safe again [Outro] When do we stop loving children? We don't. When do we stop needing kindness? We don't. When do we stop deserving shelter? We don't. When does a little girl grow too old To be held? [Child whispers] I'm still here. [Woman whispers] I know. [Together] I'm here too. [Warm piano] Come downstairs, sweetheart. There's room for you here.
