Echoes in the Mortar

This city's built on secrets and on bones of those who dreamed

Of a life a little better than the one that it had seemed

Was destined for them, every crack in this foundation knows

The weight of every triumph and the sting of every blow

They say these buildings have a memory, I know it to be true

'Cause I can feel my people in everything I do

Their strength is in the ironwork, their sorrow's in the rain

Their stubborn hope's the whistle of a long-forgotten train

This ain't a haunted memory, it's a living, breathing thing

It's the power and the harmony my ancestors still sing

A chorus of survival that I've known since my own birth

The truest definition of my value and my worth

My blood is the bayou, my bones are the stones

My legacy is written in these tired, hopeful tones

The echoes in the mortar of this town belong to me

A testament to everything I'm destined to be

I'm a walking, talking history, the future and the past

The first one of my kind and the one who's built to last.

I'm not a product of my environment, I'm its protégé

Learned to navigate the shadows at a very early age

To see the beauty in the struggle, to see the art in pain

And to understand the difference 'tween the thunder and the rain

One is just a warning, the other makes things grow

And you have got to have them both if you want the world to know

That you were here, you mattered, that you left a lasting mark

A solitary candle burning brightly in the dark

This ain't a haunted memory, it's a living, breathing thing

It's the power and the harmony my ancestors still sing

A chorus of survival that I've known since my own birth

The truest definition of my value and my worth

My blood is the bayou, my bones are the stones

My legacy is written in these tired, hopeful tones

The echoes in the mortar of this town belong to me

A testament to everything I'm destined to be

I'm a walking, talking history, the future and the past

The first one of my kind and the one who's built to last.

I'm building my own monument right here on top of theirs

Answering the silence of a million broken prayers

With a symphony of action, with a testament of will

Their echoes are the army that is marching with me still.

My blood is the bayou, my bones are the stones

My legacy is written in these tired, hopeful tones

The echoes in the mortar of this town belong to me

A testament to everything I'm destined to be

I'm a walking, talking history, the future and the past

The first one of my kind and the one who's built to last.