We Rise Anyway

The water rose
We rise anyway

Tuesday night the river jumped the levee
Took the diner and the high school gym
Mrs. Lopez on her roof with a flashlight
Holding the cat and a picture of him
Morning came in brown and quiet
Mud up to the second stair
Somebody's piano in the parking lot
Playing nothing to the air

Shovels out, the radio on
Nobody asks whose house is whose

The water rose (the water rose)
We rise anyway

We rise anyway
Rise! (anyway)
Rise! (anyway)

The water rose (the water rose)
We rise anyway
Mud to the doorframe, we paint it anyway
Line on the wall where the river came

Every year we sing above it

Rise! (anyway)
Rise! (anyway)

By June the gym had a brand-new floor
Laid by a roofer and three kids from school
Mrs. Lopez bakes for every crew
From a trailer kitchen, coffee on the stool
We painted a line on the church's side
Where the water stopped at nine feet high
Every kid in town can touch it now
Up on their daddy's shoulders, reaching high

Shovels down, the radio on
Nobody asks whose house is whose

The water rose (the water rose)
We rise anyway
Mud to the doorframe, we paint it anyway
Line on the wall where the river came

Every year we sing above it
We rise anyway

I cried in a truck on the second night
Where nobody from town could see
Then a stranger knocked on the window
With a plate of rice and a shovel for me

The water rose (the water rose)
We rise anyway
Mud to the doorframe, we paint it anyway
Line on the wall where the river came

Every year we sing above it
We rise anyway

Nine feet high
And we sing higher