Black Parade

You hear that?
Those footsteps in the dark?
They sound like me
They sound like you
March with me

I walked alone through the alleys with my pockets in pain
Till I found a thousand shadows who were thinking the same
Every one of them a ghost of a promise betrayed
Every heartbeat like a drum in a war we never made
They tried to break us in silence, divide us in fear
But when the broken stand together, the message gets clear
We're the ones you overlooked, the ones you underpaid
The sons of the debt you created and the graves you paved
I ain't your puppet, ain't your product, ain't your modern slave
I'm a spark in the rubble you forgot to save
So if you see smoke rising from the city today
That's not chaos, that's the people finding their way

You can bury a man
But you can't bury his name
You can drown out the voice
But you can't drown out the flame
We were quiet so long
But we're done with the shame

Welcome to the black parade
Where the lost don't fade
Where the broken get brave
Where the system gets played
Raise your fists in the air
For every life they betrayed
If they made us invisible
We'll hit 'em louder than grenades
This is the black parade

We got mothers with their wages cut and backs full of scars
Kids who learned to dodge bullets before driving cars
Teachers fighting every year just to keep who they are
Nurses bleeding from the shifts that they take too far
We are the backbone, the sweat, the unseen gears
We are the ones who survive on hope more than years
And the taxman thinks he owns every drop of our tears
But today we turn the fear into something he hears
I'm not a soldier, but damn, I'm ready for truth
I'm not a prophet, but I swear I'm shouting for proof
I ain't a king, but I'll give the power back to the youth
'Cause the revolution's real when it's born in the booth

You can cage every voice
But the silence will rot
You can kill the resistance
But you can't kill the thought
You can take all we have
But you can't take what we're not

Welcome to the black parade
Where the lost don't fade
Where the broken get brave
Where the system gets played
Raise your fists in the air
For every life they betrayed
If they made us invisible
We'll hit 'em louder than grenades
This is the black parade

We're the sons of the dust
Daughters of doubt
Children of noise
Who were never allowed
To scream out loud
But now we shout
Now we shout
Now we shout–

Black parade
We're the storm they feared
Black parade
We're the truth they smeared
Black parade
If they shut the gates
We kick 'em down
We own this place
This is the black parade