You built your house with a woman’s spine
With her good young years and her working time
With her quiet mouth and her blistered hands
And called her lucky to be your land
You taught your sons that a girl bends best
With a hand at her throat and a boot on her chest
Then acted shocked when the flood came red
As if your violence had not been fed
⸻
[Pre-Chorus]
You can dress a wound in a wedding lace
Still rot is rot and a grave’s a grave
(low backing voices)
“Grave’s a grave…”
⸻
[Chorus]
When the women gather, the walls come thin
The devil you made can’t save your skin
You buried us deep, but we learned to grow
Roots in the dark where your sins all go
We know your names, we know your lies
We know the look in a dead girl’s eyes
And we are done being good for you
When the women gather, it ends for you
(backing voices, harsher)
“Ends for you”
“Ends for you”
⸻
[Verse 2]
You called her difficult, called her mad
Just to hide what your hands had had
You called her ruined, called her wild
After you fed on her like a child
You love a woman with no sharp edges
No voice, no rage, no broken ledges
But every saint you ever praised
Was just a woman you half erased
⸻
[Pre-Chorus]
There’s a sound that comes when the meek bite back
Not a hymn, not a prayer, more a bone-deep crack
(choir hum begins under it)
⸻
[Chorus]
When the women gather, the walls come thin
The devil you made can’t save your skin
You buried us deep, but we learned to grow
Roots in the dark where your sins all go
We know your names, we know your lies
We know the cost of your alibis
And we are done being good for you
When the women gather, it ends for you
⸻
[Bridge]
You took and took
And called it right
You ate the day
You feared the night
You made us kneel
To make you tall
Now hear our feet
Down every hall
(spoken, cold)
You should have killed the story
before it learned to sing
⸻
[Breakdown]
No more daughters with their anger sewn shut
No more mothers digging grief out of the gut
No more mercy for the wolves in a man’s grin
No more asking what happened to make him like this
Let him answer
Let him answer
Let him answer
For every ruined thing
⸻
[Final Chorus]
When the women gather, the air turns black
We come like crows for what you lack
No, you can’t pray us out of the room
We are the branch, the rope, the bloom
We know your names, we spit them plain
We know your house was built from pain
And we are done being good for you
When the women gather, it ends for you
(full choir)
“It ends for you”
“It ends for you”
“It ends for you”
⸻
[Outro]
You wanted daughters soft as bread
Instead you raised the wrongly dead
You wanted silence, neat and pure
Now hear the sound of women at your door
(final choir, almost chanted)
“We remember”
“We remember”
“We remember”
