The Ship Still Sails

Tear out every plank, nail in something new,

still carved my name in it, still coming through.

Burn the old blueprint, I don't need the proof,

I'm the same damn fire under a different roof.

They say I'm not me 'cause the cells all turned,

tell that to the scars and the bridges I burned.

Replace the whole body, replace the whole crew,

the wreck keeps sailing and it knows it's true.

The ship still sails, every board replaced,

the same song carried in a different shape,

am I the water or the form it takes,

a promise that the morning keeps and breaks.

Band broke up but the song's still loud,

new mouths, same fire, moving through the crowd.

I'm a country that lives when the people are dead,

a flame handed down through a thousand beds.

There's no first me that the rest got stuck,

just driftwood, hunger, and a fistful of luck.

Identity's a rumor that the present keeps,

I'm the ship, the sailing, and the wake it leaves.

The ship still sails, every board replaced,

the same song carried in a different shape,

am I the water or the form it takes,

a promise that the morning keeps and breaks.