ICE TEA Party – Part Four: Songs for a Shuttered Door

[Em – G – D – Em] A child’s shoes left at a chain-link gate [Em – G – D – Em] No plaque, no press, just a line marked “wait” [C – G – D – Em] A name erased from a worn out file [Em – G – D – Em] Now folded into a government pile [Em – G – D – Em] A mother’s song no one heard but me [Em – G – D – Em] She hummed to ghosts in a freezing lobby [C – G – D – Em] The shutter clicked, then the paper lied [Em – G – D – Em] And her hope cracked open from the inside [C – G – D – Em] These are songs for a shuttered door [C – G – D – Em] For the cries they swore we’d ignore [C – G – D – Em] They buried truth in a rusted drawer [C – G – D – Em] But the melody lingers forevermore [Em – G – D – Em] A vet with boots that outlived his knees [Em – G – D – Em] Slept in wind beneath the victory trees [C – G – D – Em] They pinned a medal on his cold stiff coat [Em – G – D – Em] And read a verse someone else once wrote [Em – G – D – Em] They gaslit hunger with a flag and smile [Em – G – D – Em] And left a generation on hold for trial [C – G – D – Em] But some still write what the news won’t show [Em – G – D – Em] And sing like blood is the ink we know [C – G – D – Em] These are songs for the turned away [C – G – D – Em] The ones who starved while the wealthy prayed [C – G – D – Em] We don't need ballots to bear this flame [C – G – D – Em] Our voices break—but they still name [Bridge] [Em – G – D – Em] Not all wounds scream, some softly hum [Em – G – D – Em] A lullaby for what's to come [C – G – D – Em] They may forget—but we remember [C – G – D – Em] Each cold night burned into ember [Final Chorus – solemn rise] [C – G – D – Em] These are songs for the shuttered door [C – G – D – Em] For the dreams they claimed we were too poor for [C – G – D – Em] For the hands that held, the feet that froze [C – G – D – Em] And for every name the silence chose