[Verse 1]
Morning breaks on shuttered clinics, neon plastic on the door
Empty beds, a faded name tag, a lobby with a quiet floor.
Kids count pennies in a classroom whose windows never saw a class,
The playground swings are rusting while the mayor trims his glass.
[Pre-Chorus]
Hear the static on the radio, the preacher counting commas,
We trade stories of the hospital halls turned into hum-drum dramas.
Tension coiled like telephone wire, ready to strike a spark—
We keep the spark and feed the dark until it finds a mark.
[Chorus]
Hold the line — hold the line, we sing it like a drum.
Hold the line — hold the line, won't let them make us numb.
From ballot dust in backroom drawers to gilded towers high,
Hold the line — hold the line, till truth lights up the sky.
[Verse 2]
Closed schools with chalk dust drifting like a snowfall in the gym,
Ballot boxes covered in the dust of promises gone dim.
Factories with their gates shut, lights that blink the wrong goodbye,
A TV halo round a podium where the polished answers lie.
[Pre-Chorus]
Can you feel the ledger shaking, ink that buys the night?
We count our breaths, we count our friends, we sharpen up our sight.
This city's pulse is copper-wire — it hums beneath our shoes,
We won't be quieted by suits who sleep in velvet pews.
[Chorus]
Hold the line — hold the line, a short cry like a flare.
Hold the line — hold the line, split the silence in the air.
Empty wards and empty desks, but our footsteps multiply,
Hold the line — hold the line, till the false facades untie.
[Bridge]
They dine on chandeliers while an infant learns to wait,
Their ledgers breathe in gold; the clinic holds an empty crate.
Vote counters with their gloved hands dancing dust into the bin —
We take our songs to open streets and hammer truth against the din.
Raise your Match, raise your Voice, raise the banner from the ground,
Pull the curtains off their towers, let the city's heart resound.
[Chorus — Variation]
Hold the line — hold the line, now louder than their lies.
Hold the line — hold the line, with fire in our eyes.
We swap the ballot dust for light, turn hollow halls to home,
Hold the line — hold the line, together we will roam.
[Final Chorus]
Hold the line — hold the line, the short cry turns to song.
Hold the line — hold the line, we are fierce, we are strong.
From closed-door offices to the playgrounds and the wards,
Hold the line — hold the line, this city's beat restored.
[Outro]
Hold the line until the dawn, until the ledger's clean,
Hold the line until the hospitals hum and children wake and dream.
