“I Was Never Meant for This”

Verse 1 – Witness I’ve hung above quiet porches, Faded slow in summer light, I’ve heard neighbors trade their stories, Watched their children learn my name. I’ve moved with the wind, not the crowd, I was never loud with pride— Just a cloth stitched to a promise People tried to keep alive. Verse 2 – Memory I crossed an ocean folded tight, Salt and blood in foreign sand, I covered boys who never aged, When freedom still meant holding hands. They didn’t lift me up to threaten, Didn’t shout my colors raw, They whispered prayers into my fabric And asked me to remember them. Chorus – The Turn But now you raise me like a warning, Like a wall instead of a vow, You speak my name to silence others, You call your fear “law.” I don’t recognize the way you wear me now. Verse 3 – The Night I see the streets before the sunrise, Unmarked cars, the sudden knock, Children frozen in their doorways, Names erased with ticking clocks. You wrap yourselves in what I stand for, While your boots shake sleeping floors— If this is what you call protection, Then I don’t know you anymore. Verse 4 – Misuse You wave me high above the shouting, Like I chose the side you’re on, But I’ve never bowed to hatred, Never needed enemies drawn. I was stitched for something fragile, Something brave enough to share— Not to hunt the weak in darkness, Not to teach the world despair. Bridge – Normandy / Truth (very stripped, intimate) I remember Normandy breathing cold, I remember why I was born, I remember men who faced the dark So it wouldn’t wear me at home. They didn’t fall so you could cage your own, Didn’t die for the sound of chains— They trusted me with their last breath To mean freedom, not shame. Final Chorus – Reclamation So don’t lift me in the name of cruelty, Don’t dress your lies in my design, If you need me to break the living, Then you’ve already crossed the line. I was never meant for this. Outro – Quiet Resistance If you still believe in what I was, If you hear the older call— Lower me from fear and fury, Raise your hands instead of walls. I belong to those who protect, Not those who hunt in my name.