People Against an Empire (feat. Kelly Mulhollan)

I am standing on a rooftop
with two cities down below
and they cannot see each other
but from here I can see both
I see a rapid growing process
against the hum of daily life
I see a people against an empire

My family used to travel
in bands across these hills
through the highlands and the valleys
until the interstates were built
to the indifferent teeth of progress
went our entire way of life
we are a people against an empire

Sometimes I hold my head up
sometimes I let it fall
sometimes my little brother
throws stones across a wall
and sometimes the uniforms
obeying orders open fire
upon a people against an empire

I didn't build machine guns
I didn't program drones
I learned my mothers recipes
I looked after my home
and when my brother needed medicine
and we couldn't get supplies
it was me that went across the checkpoints

And it looked just like a movie
that I saw once from the states
the swimming pools, the houses
the parks and the cafes
I thought of home, how we get water
for an hour every night
as a people against an empire

Now I'm walking through the border
territories, occupied
past the camps laid out like cities
past the Coca Cola sign
past the remnants of the whims
of what some government decides
for a people against an empire

Once there was a rooftop
with two cities down below
and they couldn't see each other
but from up there I could see both
another relic of my childhood
for archaeologists to find
I think I'm ready to be old now
and to watch the world go by
but should anybody wonder
where my loyalties lie
I am a person
I am a person
I am a person against an empire