Ain't Your Cross

Go to sleep, my darlin', and don't you be afraid

of the monsters in the stories that the government has made,

that howl outside your window, that whisper in the night.

We will be the wall between you and their fading, hateful light.

You were born into the chaos, you were born into the rage

of a weak man's final, desperate, and pathetic final stage.

And we're sorry that you have to hear the thunder and the cries,

but we're forging you a future with the fury in our eyes.

This ain't your cross to bear, my child, this isn't your crusade;

this is the ugly, bitter promise that our generation made

to never let this happen, and we failed you, that is true.

So now we'll spend our lives making it right again for you.

'Cause this ain't your cross to bear, my love, it is our axe to grind

against the men who'd leave a just and decent world behind.

So rest your head and dream of things we're fighting to restore;

this is our burden, this is our war.

We will not teach you prayers, we'll teach you history instead,

the names of all the heroes that the textbooks say are dead.

We'll teach you how to question, how to see behind the veil

and how a system built on lies is always meant to fail.

We are the generation that is absorbing all the pain

so you can learn to trust the feeling of the clean and honest rain.

We will take the trauma so that you can have the peace,

we'll be the damn storm chasers 'til the violent storm has ceased.

This ain't your cross to bear, my child, this isn't your crusade;

this is the ugly, bitter promise that our generation made

to never let this happen, and we failed you, that is true.

So now we'll spend our lives making it right again for you.

'Cause this ain't your cross to bear, my love, it is our axe to grind

against the men who'd leave a just and decent world behind.

So rest your head and dream of things we're fighting to restore;

this is our burden, this is our war.