Nineteen Eighty-Six, Night

Verse 1

I built my empire from the ash of the old town

Skinned the bones for the frame and let the iron wear down

The city doesn't forgive a name it can't hold

It eats every edge that's not nailed shut, cold

I keep the ledger myself — no one to trust

Every copper I earn is a single-handed flush

Frost on the window at four, counting what's left

Fourteen men and a promise before the debt

Pre-Chorus

Tell me which of these walls won't come down when the wind blows through

I built them all myself — every crack — no one to blame but you

Chorus

They can't burn what the frost already paid for

Every beam I laid is a single dollar I swore

Fire in the rafters, snow on my sleeve

Nineteen eighty-six tonight is all I'll leave

Verse 2

I bought that street lot by the river for nothing but dust

Wiped it clean with an engine and left the old rust

Built three buildings where they had one — no permits, just will

Climbed every beam myself before the first chill

Every window a dollar I counted on my own hand

Painted over the scar with the same black that stains

I don't carry a sword — I'm carrying the rain

Watching which of these walls stays standing when it rains again

Pre-Chorus

Tell me which of these walls won't come down when the wind blows through

I built them all myself — every crack — no one to blame but you

Chorus

They can't burn what the frost already paid for

Every beam I laid is a single dollar I swore

Fire in the rafters, snow on my sleeve

Nineteen eighty-six tonight is all I'll leave

Bridge

I built it — I burned it — that's how the winter settles

Nothing left of me but this and whatever settles

The smoke goes straight up because there's no one here to save

Not from the flames, not from the cold, just from what you paid

Outro

It still stands — for now — under the snow