Verse
The landlord’s knocking holes through the calendar again
Another letter through the door explaining where the money went
The kettle sings, the cupboard echoes
Every penny’s got a destination before it leaves my hand
The papers say the market’s strong
The radio says carry on
But every face I pass at dawn
Looks like they’re hanging from the same thin wire
The buses run late
The wages run dry
The city keeps growing while we’re learning how to shrink our lives
Glass towers reaching for a heaven they’ve already bought
While we’re bargaining with hope for everything we’re not
Pre-Chours
And we’re tired
Of being told it’s all alright
We’re tired
Of standing in the cold while they describe the sunlight
Chours
From the view on the balcony
Everything must look small
Tiny little lives in the shadows below
Trying not to fall
We’ve been fighting gravity
With our backs against the wall
Life is hard enough
Hard enough
Without you looking past us all
Hard enough…
Hard enough…
Without you looking past us all
Verse
The nurse on the night shift
The kid stacking shelves
The driver chasing daylight just to feed somebody else
The teacher marking papers at a kitchen table’s glow
Trying to build a future while the rent keeps saying no
The numbers climb
The profits rise
The graphs all point towards the sky
Yet somehow every victory arrives
Without a single change to our lives
Funny how the distance grows
The higher that they stand
Till a thousand open hands
Just look like grains of sand
Pre-Chours
And we’re tired
Of hearing how the best is yet to come
We’re tired
Of watching every ladder lose another rung
Chours
From the view on the balcony
Everything must look small
Tiny little lives in the shadows below
Trying not to fall
We’ve been fighting gravity
With our backs against the wall
Life is hard enough
Hard enough
Without you looking past us all
Hard enough…
Hard enough…
Without you looking past us all
Bridge
No crowns
No villains
No monsters in the dark
Just people getting comfortable
Forgetting who they are
No speeches
No slogans
No grand conspiracy
Just a thousand tiny choices
Made by people who don’t see
What it’s like when the tank is empty
When the cupboard’s bare
When every month becomes a question
Nobody up there has to answer
Can you hear us?
(Pause.)
Can you hear us?
Instrumental Break
Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
Chours
From the view on the balcony
Everything must look small
Tiny little lives in the shadows below
Trying not to fall
We’ve been fighting gravity
Since before we could crawl
Life is hard enough
Hard enough
Without you looking past us all
So come and look us in the eyes
Before you build another wall
From the view on the balcony
Can you hear us at all?
Can you hear us at all?
Can you hear us at all?
Outro
The lights stay on up there…
The lights stay on…
And down here in the dark
We’re still holding on
The lights stay on…
