Chalk Lines

[Verse 1] Chalk lines on the pavement tonight Drawing borders I can't see with my eyes Dad's shoulders sink a little more As whispers follow through the council door "Sorry mate, your kind ain't welcome here" Words that cut through thirty years [Chorus] They're drawing lines around our souls With their polite suburban protocols Watch them smile while they push us out This is how they silence without a shout This is how they break you down This is how they own this town [Verse 2] Father's voice gets softer now At community meetings, he won't speak out loud Their eyes say "Go back where you're from" But this street's been home since I was young Bureaucratic forms and endless queues Just another way to make us move [Bridge] Empty chairs at neighborhood shows Where Dad used to sit in the front rows His silence speaks in volumes now More than their words could ever allow F*ck their false civility Their sugar-coated hostility [Chorus] They're drawing lines around our souls With their polite suburban protocols Watch them smile while they push us out This is how they silence without a shout This is how they break you down This is how they own this town [Verse 3] Remember when we used to belong? Before they changed the rules of right and wrong Now we're ghosts in our own home Walking lines we've always known But we won't fade into their night These chalk lines won't define our lives [Outro] Let them draw their fucking lines We'll smudge them out a thousand times This town bleeds beneath our feet And every step's a small defeat For their perfect little scene We're the stain they can't keep clean