[Verse 1]
The morning started normal
Coffee warming in a favorite mug
Kids were late for school again
Running on routine and luck
Dogs were barking down the block
Traffic crawled along Main Street
Nothing seemed unusual
Just another week to meet
Then a glow across the skyline
Brighter than the rising sun
People stood in silent doorways
Wondering what had begun
Then the phones stopped ringing
Then the screens went black
And every voice was asking
If the world was coming back
[Pre-Chorus]
No one knew the answers
No one knew the cost
We just stood together
Counting what we’d lost
[Chorus]
When the lights went out
We lit each other
When the roads broke down
We carried one another
When the fear came in
And the sky turned gray
What remained
Was the people who stayed
The people who stayed
[Verse 2]
The grocery shelves grew lighter
Every day a little more
People lined up before sunrise
Outside every store
Names were taped to window glass
Under photographs and rain
And every time I passed them
I read them once again
Mrs. Carter down on Maple
Shared the last of what she had
And the quiet kid across the street
Started helping with the bags
[Pre-Chorus]
The world got smaller
Block by block
Front porch lights
And doorbell knocks
[Chorus]
When the lights went out
We lit each other
When the roads broke down
We carried one another
When the fear came in
And the sky turned gray
What remained
Was the people who stayed
The people who stayed
[Verse 3]
I heard the distant engines
Saw strange lights move at night
Every porch grew a little quieter
When they vanished from our sight
But the church still opened Sundays
Though the power never came
And Miss Alvarez taught six children
How to write their names
Old men fixed the generators
Teenagers hauled wood
Nobody called themselves heroes
They just did what they could
[Pre-Chorus]
The world had changed
But hand to hand
We built tomorrow
The best we can
[Bridge]
I thought courage would be loud
Like the movies always show
But it looked like tired people
Still finding ways to go
It looked like soup in paper bowls
And blankets in the cold
And hands that kept on reaching out
When everyone was scared
[Final Chorus]
When the lights went out
We lit each other
When the roads broke down
We carried one another
When the fear came in
And the sky turned gray
What remained
Was the people who stayed
Not the towers
Not the highways
Not the things we thought would save
What remained
Was the people who stayed
The people who stayed
[Outro]
History remembers battles
I remember names
And the people who stayed
[Chorus]
When the lights went out
We lit each other
When the roads broke down
We carried one another
When the fear came in
And the sky turned gray
What remained
Was the people who stayed
The people who stayed
Brigids_Hearth
