Verse 1]
Every night the mountain rumbled
Through the walls and down the hall
I could hear the glasses breaking
Mama crying soft and small
Doors would shake like thunder cracking
Pictures fell down from the heat
I was hiding with my heartbeat
Trying not to make a peep
But in the morning came the ashes
Purple skies around her eyes
She said, “Baby, it’s alright now”
While another part of her died
[Pre-Chorus]
I was little
He was lava
Burning everything he touched
But I loved her enough to stand there
Even when I shook too much
[Chorus]
My daddy was a volcano
Red smoke living in his chest
Everybody learned to run when
Magma started leaking out his breath
I tried to be a wall around her
Tiny hands against the flame
But mountains don’t care who they’re hurting
When they explode in rage
Now we’re driving far from the fire
Watching ashes fade behind
But I’m scared there’s a volcano
Growing somewhere deep inside
[Verse 2]
One night hotter than the others
I stepped into the falling ash
Said, “You gotta stop hurting Mama”
Then the lightning struck so fast
I remember how she screamed then
Like the earth itself had split
When she saw his fire hit me
Something finally snapped in it
She grabbed my hand without a suitcase
Didn’t even stop for shoes
Rain was pouring as we ran from
Everything we used to lose
[Chorus]
My daddy was a volcano
Red smoke living in his chest
Everybody learned to run when
Magma started leaking out his breath
I tried to be a wall around her
Tiny hands against the flame
But mountains don’t care who they’re hurting
When they explode in rage
Now we’re sleeping somewhere quiet
No more trembling through the night
But I’m scared there’s a volcano
Buried somewhere deep inside
[Bridge]
Mama says, “You’re not your father
Fire ain’t the same as light”
Still I clench my fists when angry
Terrified of what I might
Become
If all that thunder
Found a home inside my bones
What if someday someone I love
Looks at me the way she looked at him?
[Final Chorus]
My daddy was a volcano
But maybe I don’t have to be
Maybe mountains can stay sleeping
Maybe anger doesn’t have to bleed
’Cause I remember her arms around me
In the rain beneath black skies
She said, “The brave don’t become monsters
Just because they’ve seen one rise”
Now the ashes keep on falling
But I finally see the truth
A volcano took my childhood
But it won’t take who I choose
[Outro]
Some nights I still hear rumbling
Even when the world is still
I wake up scared the mountain followed
Over every distant hill
Mama says the earth keeps shaking
Long after the fire dies
But every day we wake in freedom
Is another sunrise
And when I feel that anger rising
Boiling underneath my skin
I remember brave ain’t never
Learning how to never feel again
It’s choosing not to pass the fire
Choosing love instead of fear
The volcano ends with me now
It stops right here
ElCeviche
