Red Velvet Halo

Lyrics

[Intro] The elevator groans below the avenue, A paper crown is pinned to someone’s sleeve. The house lights blink like they forgot the cue, But every broken guest still wants to leave. [Verse 1] You keep your miracles in coffee tins, You hide your better name beneath the bed. The landlord counts the cracks and calls them sins, While all the brave things crowd inside your head. I know the room is small, the lock is old, The hallway leans, the ceiling stains with rain. But if you’ve got one ember left to hold, Then I’ve got both hands reaching through the pain. [Pre-Chorus] No, we don’t need clean hands tonight, We need a reason to stand upright. Take my sleeve, take my hand— We’ll make a doorway where we planned. [Chorus] Raise your voice from the basement floor, Tell the dark it can’t collect you anymore. If the heavens misplaced your name, We’ll write it bright beside the flame. Come as you are, with your teeth and scars, There’s a little more sky than these prison bars. And if hope is a rumor, then let it be heard— We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. [Verse 2] The bartender has stopped pretending not to care, The girl upstairs is sewing up her wings. A tired old sinner straightens out a chair, And suddenly the room remembers springs. You say the past has got you by the throat, You say the future never learned your face. Then let tonight become a little boat, And let our sorry hearts become the oars we raise. [Pre-Chorus] No, we don’t need perfect plans tonight, We need a spark and a little appetite. Take my sleeve, take my hand— We’ll make a sunrise where we stand. [Chorus] Raise your voice from the basement floor, Tell the dark it can’t collect you anymore. If the heavens misplaced your name, We’ll write it bright beside the flame. Come as you are, with your teeth and scars, There’s a little more sky than these prison bars. And if hope is a rumor, then let it be heard— We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. [Bridge] Maybe redemption isn’t clean, Maybe it limps in a torn-up dream. Maybe the door won’t open wide, So we’ll build one from the other side. One voice is thin, two voices shake, A hundred voices make the floorboards quake. Let every lost soul take their turn— There’s still a place for us to learn. [Final Chorus] Raise your voice till the rafters roar, Tell the dark it can’t collect us anymore. Every forgotten, furious name, We’ll write them all beside the flame. Come as you are, with your teeth and scars, There’s a little more sky than these prison bars. And if hope is a rumor, then let it be heard— We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. [Outro] The elevator climbs, the old cables sing, A paper crown becomes a golden thing. No one is clean, but everyone has begun— We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.