Razor Flag Parade
Verse 1 Banners line the Main Street
floating in the sky
Suits are cutting ribbons while the clouds go drifting by. Marching band is wheezing out a patriotic hit
Parents filming shakily and clapping for a bit. Speeches pour like coffee that has turned a little cold
Selling all the future that the town has bought and sold. Back behind the laundromat
inside the alley black
We hold a different ceremony near the railroad track.
Verse 2 Flags are stitched from ruined shirts and signs we stole away
Duct tape on the edges of the things we have to say. Writing names of every kid who didn’t make the grade
Letters like a funeral for promises betrayed. For the ones who ran away
for those the needle took
For the ones who vanished and were scrubbed from every book. Stamping boots on asphalt
marching in the wet
A rhythm for the people that the city would forget.
Pre-Chorus They love a clean parade
a picture for the news
Bright and shiny colors and expensive shoes. Looking past the rusted edge where we have gathered round
With broken instruments and staring at the ground.
Chorus This is the razor flag parade
dragging on the street
Scraping sparks and fire from the concrete and the feet. Voices rough as gravel
shaking windows in the frame
Marching for the lost ones who possess a heavy name. If they won’t wave our colors
we will carve them in the stone
Screaming till the sleepers wake and realize they’re alone.
Verse 3 Banging on a stolen snare
the head is dented in
Beating out a verdict on the paper and the tin. Yelling in a megaphone with lyrics on the arm
We don’t ask permission or mean anybody harm. Drivers roll the windows up or honk the horn in time
Secretly admitting that they understand the rhyme.
Pre-Chorus They say we’re only noise
just steam inside the air
That nothing really changes when we scream about the tear. But maybe someone listens
maybe someone stays
Deciding not to exit in the ending of the days.
Chorus This is the razor flag parade
dragging on the street
Scraping sparks and fire from the concrete and the feet. Voices rough as gravel
shaking windows in the frame
Marching for the lost ones who possess a heavy name. If they won’t wave our colors
we will carve them in the stone
Screaming till the sleepers wake and realize they’re alone.
Bridge Years from now the big balloons are rotting in the dump
Videos corrupted in the digital slump. But flags will hang in bedrooms
faded on the wall
Humming with the memory of the heavy call. A kid will see the names and feel a little less apart
Knowing there were others with a beating, broken heart.
Outro Main Street is empty, the confetti swept away
Speeches are forgotten by the middle of the day. But back here in the alley
the razor flags still fly
Waving at the gray and heavy texture of the sky.