BeltLine Bells & Roaring Lions

Lyrics

[Intro]
The air is still damp.
Just after sunrise.

[Verse 1]
The first sound is a whir.
Wheels on the new path.
A quick, silver ding-ding from a bicycle.
Someone's morning ride along the old freight corridor.
A different kind of iron song now.
Quieter.

[Chorus]
But then it comes from the south.
A deep-chested rumble that isn't thunder.
The roar from the Savanna, rolling over the playgrounds.
And the bicycle bells answer, clear and bright.
This is the sound of our home.
A lion and a bell.
The city breathing something strange and wild.

[Verse 2]
By noon, the swings are crying their metal song.
A chorus of shouts from the children's hill.
The steady thump-thump of a basketball on pavement.
And through the canopy of the great oaks,
conversations drift like pollen.
Families on blankets, sharing a Sunday.

[Chorus]
And still it comes from the south.
That deep-chested rumble that isn't thunder.
The roar from the Savanna, rolling over the playgrounds.
And the bicycle bells answer, clear and bright.
This is the sound of our home.
A lion and a bell.
The city breathing something strange and wild.

[Bridge]
I sit on this porch, built in eighteen-ninety-something.
I just listen.
The air gets heavy in the summer, you know.
Thick.
They say on a humid morning, you can hear that roar all the way to the Capitol.
A message from a king held captive in the green heart of the city.

[Outro]
The light goes gold.
The shouts get called in for dinner.
The wheels slow down.
Just the leaves, whispering again.