The Price of Nothing

Verse 1:
I woke to fire on the skyline,
Another promise turned to ash
The paper’s full of silence
And the truth is out of cash
My hands are thin and empty
But they still reach for the flame
Just tryin’ to hold on to something
In a world that don’t know my name
Chorus:
This is the price of nothing
When the rich men turn away
They sell us dreams on credit
And leave us here to pay
The sky is made of embers
And the ground is fallin’ through
How do you stand for somethin’
When no one’s standin’ for you?
Verse 2:
I hear them talk of progress
In their halls of glass and gold
But they ain’t walked the shadows
Where the warmth’s gone cold
They preach about tomorrow
While today just slips and dies
And I’m just one more ghost here
Howlin’ at the lies
Chorus:
This is the price of nothin’
When the blood don’t buy your bread
They raise their cups in silence
While we bury our dead
The smoke don’t rise to heaven
It just hangs like a noose
How do you live with dignity
When they keep takin’ the truth?
Bridge:
There’s a cost to every silence
A debt we can’t forgive
They burn the garden down
And tell us how to live
But the flowers won’t come back
When the soil is all regret
And the seeds of revolution
Ain’t been watered yet
Chorus:
This is the price of nothin’
When your voice don’t make a sound
And the kings all smile in pity
As they watch you sink down
So light a match for mercy
If you still believe it’s real
But don’t expect salvation
From a man who’ll never feel
Outro (soft, fading):
Yeah… this is the price of nothin’
And we’re all paying...

Weathered Illinois vocal, eerie grunge ballad, whispery sad verse, yell a raspy powerhouse chorus, eerie guitar