Roof Learned to Hold

Mm
One light on
This one's for the quiet ones
Roof learned to hold
I don't fold anymore

I used to fold myself
To fit your smaller rooms
Said sorry like a comma
Tiptoed through the fumes

Kept my whole loud voice
Zipped up inside my coat
Sat at the edge of the table
With a knot inside my throat

Bit the inside of my cheek
So the peace could stay
Swallowed every honest word
I ever meant to say

Then one cold gray morning
The mirror caught my spine
I straightened up
And something sparked behind my eyes

Peeled the tape off
Found my own loud mouth
Floorboards held steady
As I turned around

Lungs full
Jaw set
Lightning in the cold

You tried to teach me how to fold
Fold
I'm steel in the streetlight
Steady in the cold

Knock all you want
This house don't fall
Roof learned to hold
Hold!

Stand up
Stand up
Hey!
Stand up
Stand up
Hey!

Spine like a streetlight
I don't sway
Stand up
Stand up
Hey!

Six months later
Took the head end of the table
Poured my own black coffee
Hands a little less unstable

Unlearned the flinch
Retaught my boots to land
Floorboards know the difference
When I finally take a stand

You go looking for the small girl
She don't live here now
Left her in the doorway
Took my whole name out loud

Same cold morning
Different woman in the glass
She don't ask for permission
And she don't ask twice

Peeled the tape off
Found my own loud mouth
Floorboards held steady
As I turned around

Lungs full
Jaw set
Lightning in the cold

You tried to teach me how to fold
Fold
I'm steel in the streetlight
Steady in the cold

Knock all you want
This house don't fall
Roof learned to hold
Hold!

Stand up
Stand up
Hey!
Hey!

Stand up
Stand up
Hey!
Hey!

Spine like a streetlight
I don't sway
Stand up
Stand up
Hey!
Whoa oh

Every door they closed
I made a wall
A wall

Every wall they built
I made a floor
A floor

Every floor they shook
Listen
That's the sound
Of nothing moving

Still standing

Funny how the quiet
Was the loudest thing I owned
Every yes I never meant
Got hammered into bone

I'm not the storm's apology
I'm the ground that took the blow
And the ground don't move
The ground don't move

So knock
Go on and knock
Knock knock
Roof learned to hold
Hold

You built the silence
I built the roar
The roar

You locked the words
I kicked down the door
The door

Nail by nail
I took my name back
Now watch what the quiet built
Watch this

You tried to teach me
How to fold
I'm steel in the streetlight
Steady in the cold

Knock all you want
This house don't fall
Roof learned to hold
Hold!

Stand up
Stand up
Hey!
This house don't fall

Stand up
Stand up
Hey!
Steel in the cold

Spine like a streetlight
I don't sway
Hey!

I was the quiet one
Look at the quiet one now
One light on
One stomp
Roof learned to hold

Still standing
Still whole