Thousand Soft Voices

Lyrics

[Verse 1] A thousand men in borrowed boots March through the salt and rain Names like stones in their mouths But none of them answer the same They wear the weight of iron vows Like a coat that fits too tight And under every clenched-up grin A softer pulse takes flight [Verse 2] One by one they cut their hair And one by one they stare At mirrors made of locker-room glass At hands they hardly dare To touch the face that calls them back From beneath the cracking skin Somewhere past the fear of loss A truer self lives in [Pre-Chorus] Oh, the road keeps bending Oh, the lock keeps turning All the names they were given Start burning, burning, burning [Chorus] We are not what they made We are not what they made A thousand hearts awake A thousand hearts awake If I was born in the wrong song Let me find my way home A thousand hearts awake A thousand hearts awake [Verse 3] They all thought strength meant silence And silence meant a throne But the night kept handing them A language of its own In lipstick on a cracked motel glass In a dress hidden in a drawer In the shame they passed like a torch They couldn't carry anymore [Verse 4] Then the first one said his fear aloud And the second dropped his pride The third one laughed through wet-eyed shock And stood there naked inside Not every wound became a song Not every soul wore lace But every one of them heard at last The shape of their own face [Pre-Chorus] Oh, the road keeps bending Oh, the lock keeps turning All the names they were given Start burning, burning, burning [Chorus] We are not what they made We are not what they made A thousand hearts awake A thousand hearts awake If I was born in the wrong song Let me find my way home A thousand hearts awake A thousand hearts awake [Bridge] And if the world calls it madness Let the world keep talking The body is a kingdom And the soul keeps walking Through each hard-won sunrise Through the blade and bloom They became what they'd been reaching for In a room that made room [Final Chorus] We are not what they made We are not what they made A thousand hearts awake A thousand hearts awake If I was born in the wrong song Let me find my way home A thousand hearts awake A thousand hearts awake