Hold This Bridge (Version 2)

Verse

Fifteen and the dock still holds my name

Salt on the railing, salt in every flame

The captain's daughter taught me how to throw

A net of smoke across the tide below

I was just a boy with a spark and a dream

She said we'd light this whole harbor wide

Six years old, I believed the tide could turn

Every fire I lit turned bigger than that burn

Pre-Chorus

Tell me what it's for, tell me why it burns

Tell me how a small flame turns to every heart that learns

I've watched it climb past every pier we knew

From a coal truck wheel to the city's streetlight blue

Chorus

Hold this bridge till the morning breaks

This is all the war I'm gonna make

Every matchstick lit across the town tonight

We burn so bright till the dark comes back tonight

I was just a boy with a match in my hand

Watch it turn this whole street into gold again

Verse 2

The captain's wife still lights one every year

Same dock, same coal truck, different name but here

Twenty years gone and the harbor's twice as wide

My fire got sold to every kid who couldn't hide

They say the sea don't care for sparks like that

Say it's just a flame in an empty track

But I built this whole town on something small

Something so fragile even the wind can fall

Pre-Chorus

Tell me what it's for, tell me why it burns

Tell me how a small flame turns to every heart that learns

I've watched it climb past every pier we knew

From a coal truck wheel to the city's streetlight blue

Chorus

Hold this bridge till the morning breaks

This is all the war I'm gonna make

Every matchstick lit across the town tonight

We burn so bright till the dark comes back tonight

I was just a boy with a match in my hand

Watch it turn this whole street into gold again

Bridge

Maybe fire don't last past midnight's edge

Maybe it doesn't need to, maybe we're not wedged

To the dock that built us or the name we made

It's never about surviving but about what stays

I'm older now, the matchstick's gone for good

But I lit this whole block just like my motherhood

Chorus

Hold this bridge till the morning breaks

This is all the war I'm gonna make

Every matchstick lit across the town tonight

We burn so bright till the dark comes back tonight

I was just a boy with a match in my hand

Watch it turn this whole street into gold again

Outro

Hold this bridge till the morning breaks

Still burning, still holding on