Once we lit the sky with iron

Raised our banners to the stars

Built our cities out of promises

And stitched freedom into scars

We sang loud of manifest glory

Paved the prairie, damned the streams

Chased gold through every mountain

And left silence in our dreams

We fed the gods of commerce

With the sweat of broken backs

Built temples out of silicon

While truth fell through the cracks

Our towers kissed the heavens

But our hands forgot the soil

Now the land we stole and silenced

Gives back nothing for our toil

Oh, say can you see

What we’ve become, what’s left to be?

The eagle circles low and wide

With ashes clinging to its pride

We wrote an anthem carved in steel

Now sing it soft, and make it real

For empires fall not with a roar

But with a whisper through the door

We taught our children history

Like a fable we had won

But never showed the burning fields

Or the barrel of the gun

We crowned ourselves with virtue

While we poisoned sacred ground

Built prisons out of justice

And let mercy drown

Now the bankers preach salvation

The generals sell the fight

And a million empty storefronts

Glow with automated light

We traded soul for speed and shine

Sold faith for fame and fear

Now the heartland’s full of shadows

And the end is drawing near

Oh, say can you see

What we denied, who we let bleed?

The eagle flies with shattered wings

Through dying crops and broken things

The anthem plays, but no one stands

Just folded flags in trembling hands

For empires fall not in one blow

But in forgetting what they know

Still, the rivers mourn in silence

And the mountains do not care

Time will sweep the monuments

Like dust into the air

But maybe in the ruins

Where no walls are left to climb

We’ll find a gentler country

In another, fairer time