In the beginning we were banished
And then we stoked the fires
Scrapped our songs for salvage
Built a funeral pyre
Watched it sinking slowly
In the reverberating depths
Knelt along the shoreline
And held our hands to our faces as we wept
We were boxes full of broken hearts
En route to empty business parks
Where they set us down
Out past the exit signs and scattered glass
The highway tore our hearts in half
At the edge of town
We found this failed city project
A couple acres cleared to build some kind of complex
Their tools tore up the ground but they had to halt their progress
When their funds ran out, packed up and cut their losses
There it lay in all its glory
We took our refuge in the shelter of the quarry
You'd bring your dad's guitar and swipe a couple forties
We'd pass them back and forth and sing each other stories
We'd gather there from far and wide
In the towering shade
And the quarry would contain the cries
That our voices made
With our echoes ringing out until
I could hardly hear
If I close my eyes and stand real still
Would I disappear?
We'd spend our days composing eulogies
To everything we used to be
Before the crash
And our nights performing song and dance
For some celestial audience
We swore they'd clap
And with laughter Arielle recited sonnets
Each line well rehearsed
Shortly after Darian would quote them scripture
Chapter and verse
Through the dust we saw it rising up before us
A pathway through the hurt
We looked around and found these rock walls were a fortress
That we built with nothing but our words
We'd duck down when we heard the sound
And the machines drew near
So sure that we could wait them out
Till the coast was clear
We could hear the engines throb and hum
In a distant din
But we swore that day would never come
When the dirt poured in
So with our stories finally spent
We began to roam
Could wander forty years and yet
Never find our home
We'll crawl upon our hands and knees
And embrace this curse
As prodigals and refugees
In the wasted earth