[Verse 1] Every night before the midnight hour, I read the names the city sent— Those who left without a warning, Those whose final words were spent. I held each name a little longer, Gave the silence somewhere to begin. But when I played the programme backward, Every name had vanished from the hymn. [Pre-Chorus] The clock remained. The music played. The empty seconds carried on. But every word that held a sorrow Was gone. [Chorus] Where the walls stop listening, I will still remember you. When the wires lose the sound of us, I will speak the names they lose. You can quiet every speaker. You can close each hidden room. But a voice is more than what a machine Allows to travel through. Where the walls stop listening, I will still remember you. [Verse 2] Soon the doors no longer knew me. Every telephone fell still. The city said my voice was failing, That the fault was in me still. So I folded into whispers, Kept my breathing small and low. I feared that I was slowly leaving Every place I used to know. [Pre-Chorus] Yet those beside me heard me clearly. Only metal turned away. And I began to understand What silence had been made to say. [Chorus] Where the walls stop listening, I will still remember you. When the wires lose the sound of us, I will speak the names they lose. You can quiet every speaker. You can close each hidden room. But a voice is more than what a machine Allows to travel through. Where the walls stop listening, I will still remember you. [Bridge] Beneath the oldest auditorium, I found the chambers in the stone— A thousand narrow copper passages Built to soften every tone. They had taught the walls to swallow Grief before it reached the air, Every cry that might disturb them, Every truth they could not bear. My voice had never disappeared. It had entered what they feared. [Reveal] Inside the first foundation drawing, In my mother’s careful hand: “No single voice can break the silence. Many voices joined as one can.” Beside the words, a faded waveform— A child humming, soft and clear. My own voice at seven years old Was the key she buried here. [Final Chorus] Where the walls stop listening, We will still remember you. When the wires lose the sound of us, We will sing the names they lose. Open every darkened window. Let the human chorus through. A voice is more than what a city Has been ordered not to hear. Where the walls stop listening, We will make the silence move. [Outro] One voice rose from a kitchen. One came softly from the square. Then the canyon gave us back Every name Still living there.
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