[Intro] The fence hums low in the evening dust A child holds water, a guard holds trust The moon looks down on a razor line One side yours and one side mine [Verse] She walks where the road turns into wire Where the sunset burns like a funeral pyre Names scratched deep in a bathroom door People who passed and are people no more A mother folds papers in plastic wrap A boy keeps sleeping with a schoolroom map Every stamp is a mountain, every gate is a sea Every question asks who you are allowed to be [Pre-Chorus] A border is not A line in the sand It is hunger and waiting It is a trembling hand [Chorus] Borders have blood, borders have bones Borders make graves out of other people’s homes Borders have blood, borders have teeth They smile on the map while they cut underneath No wall is holy, no fence is clean Every border drawn in fear turns mean [Verse] The men in the capital never stand here They never hear breathing on the edge of fear They speak of pressure, they speak of flow Like families are weather and not people they know She shares her bread with a woman from the east Who says my country was divided by beasts Not monsters in stories, not devils with horns Just men in clean rooms where the border was born [Pre-Chorus] A border is not A word in a speech It is someone’s mother Just out of reach [Chorus] Borders have blood, borders have bones Borders make graves out of other people’s homes Borders have blood, borders have teeth They smile on the map while they cut underneath No wall is holy, no fence is clean Every border drawn in fear turns mean [Interlude] Open the gate Say their names Open the gate End the games Open the gate Say their names Open the gate End the games [Bridge] She writes by the fire with a dead phone screen The quietest night that she has ever seen No breaking news, no studio fight Just human breath in the freezing night And she understands with a terrible grace That the world is divided by distance and face But the line they defend with a prayer and a gun Bleeds the same red on everyone [Breakdown] Blood on the wire Blood on the stone Blood in the passport Blood going home [Build-up] Blood on the wire Blood on the stone Blood in the passport Blood going home Break every border That feeds on fear Nobody’s illegal When the earth is here [Chorus] Borders have blood, borders have bones Borders make graves out of other people’s homes Borders have blood, borders have teeth They smile on the map while they cut underneath No wall is holy, no fence is clean Every border drawn in fear turns mean [Outro] The fence hums low in the evening dust A child holds water, a guard holds trust She writes one line as the cold winds pass No border is stronger than a breaking glass