The 2008 Tornado: Sky's Fury Over Mill Town

Lyrics

[Intro]
March fourteenth. Two thousand and eight.
The air grew heavy. The hour grew late.
We bricks of the mill, we timbers in the frame...
We felt the pressure change. We knew its name.

[Verse 1]
A whisper came from the west, past the Georgia Dome.
A sound that was not a freight train coming home.
It grew from a rumble to a full-throated shriek.
A promise the sky was too angry to keep.
The sirens began their thin, useless plea.
Against the thing we could feel, but not yet see.

[Chorus]
We are the walls, we are the stone.
This is the sound of bone on bone.
A hundred and thirty-five miles of rage.
Tearing a new, unwritten page.
Splintering wood, shattering glass.
A moment that would not quickly pass.

[Verse 2]
The shotgun shacks on Wylie Street held their breath.
Their tin roofs surrendered, a sudden death.
The Mill Lofts shuddered, a giant in pain.
As the EF2 clawed at windowpane.
And across the fence in Oakland's deep sleep,
The ancient oaks fell where the founders keep.
Their marble angels didn't see it come.
Just the snap of roots, and then they were numb.

[Chorus]
We are the walls, we are the stone.
This is the sound of bone on bone.
A hundred and thirty-five miles of rage.
Tearing a new, unwritten page.
The smell of ozone, pine, and wet clay.
The price of living in its way.

[Bridge]
And then... stillness.
A silence so deep.
The power grid broken in its sleep.
The dark was total, but for the flashing light.
Of those who came running into the night.
A new landscape drawn by a violent hand.
That only the wounded could understand.

[Outro]
The fifteenth of March dawned cold and gray.
On twisted metal where front porches lay.
I am the ground that holds the nail.
I am the brick that did not fail.
I remember the fury. I wear the scar.
And I am still here.
We are.