We lit the candles in the rain

Said never would we look away again

We held the silence like a vow

Promised the future starts with now

(Mmm-mmm)

We sang about a dream beneath the sky

Called it old sermons about how hope won't die

We whispered freedom like a sacred flame

Swore every child on earth deserved a name

We laid down flowers in front of mounted lines

Watched horses breathing over protest signs

We said no more with steady hands

Believed that love alone could change our lands

(Hey-ey-ey)

(Whoa-oh-oh)

But candles didn't stop the gas in the square

Didn't lift the knee from a throat in open air

You filmed the smoke while someone begged to breathe

A bloated grief with captions about belief

Hospitals flattened while councils convene

Deeply concerned is the diplomatic routine

They shake their heads then sign the trade

All in the handshake profit in the blade

A war gets framed as a complex affair

No one says who shipped the hardware

Different decade same disguise

Old invasions under modern ties

(Oh)

If we know what dignity demands

Why is blood still soaking in the sand?

If we believe that every life's the same

Why does value change depending on the name?

(Ah-ah-ah)

Forests fall for quarterly growth

Ice caps drown beneath the loath

Fuel flying private to discuss the heat

Then blame the poor for what they eat

Children buried under broken stone

Press releases call it zone on zone

You say it's tragic say it's tense

Never mention who supplied defense

We watched a border turn to graves

Rubber boats swallowed by indifferent waves

You build new walls and preach be kind

Sell fear wholesale to a fractured mind

Sanctions here

Alliances there

But bombs still bloom in open air

I still believe we can be more

Than flags that hide what we ignore

I still believe in something true

But belief demands something from you

You love the anthem hate the cost

Love the wreath forget the loss

You love the march when it's a trend

Disappear before the end

You say never again with careful tone

While funding weapons through your phone

You want the peace without the fight

Want clean hands and moral height

You want the future neat and mild

No sacrifice no comfort exiled

History doesn't lose the thread

It writes our silence with the dead

If love is more than what we sing

Then let it shake the very thing

That keeps us safe and keeps us blind

And leaves the broken far behind

If we are who the future sees

Let it not inherit apologies

(Ooh-ooh-ooh)

We lit the candles in the rain

We can choose to mean it this time again

Not just the words

Not just the sound

But what we do

When no one's around