Intro
Bellows breathe like a lung that won't quit
Forge light flickers where the oath still sits
Verse
Granddaddy's forge was a chapel with a smoke stack steeple
He hammered chains for men he still called his people
But every third link, he'd hairline it thin
Called it a flaw, never called it a sin
Overseer heard the ring, never heard the swing
Never knew freedom was hid in the ring
Coal dust settled black in the lines of his palm
He'd whisper the oath like a hymn, like a psalm
Strike true, strike slow, let the fire decide
Quench barrel hissing like the river he denied
Branding iron cooling right next to the tongs
He kept his whole count in a language of songs
Thirty years bent over that same anvil block
Never broke, never spoke, let the hammer talk
When the war came and the chains turned to plow
He melted the guilt into something to sow
Chorus
We forge or we fold, that's the iron oath
Quench it in the dark, watch it turn to gold
Hammer take the doubt, anvil take the load
That's the iron oath, that's the iron oath
Verse
Now I'm the one in the shop past the light in the lot
Sparks landing on denim, leaving stars where they're not
Same oath, different metal, I weld what I can
Turn busted rebar to a gate for a man
Who just came home from a cage with his name still intact
I don't ask what he did, I just handle the tact
Forge don't judge, forge just tests what's inside
You either temper right or you crack when you're tried
I keep a notebook, page torn from the old one he kept
Every gate that I've built is a deb
