Our Nation (song)

Lyrics

Verse 1
Coffee steam on a porch at dawn,
Steel-toed boots and a neon yawn,
Hands that built up the avenues,
Painted the sky with a working blues.
Freight trains hum and the sidewalks sing,
Timecards click like a tambourine,
Every brick and every beam,
Laid by a thousand, steady dreams.
Pre-Chorus
Raise your hats, your gloves, your names,
From factory floors to midnight trains,
Turn the engines down today—
Hear the heartbeat, let it play.
Chorus
It’s Labor Day, light the grill and pass the flame,
For the doers, the makers, the ones who paved the way.
From the picket lines to pay stubs saved,
From sunup sweat to starlit praise,
We rest, we sing, we celebrate—
This Labor Day.
Verse 2
Classrooms buzz and the nurses run,
Cables strung ‘til the job is done,
Cooks with flour on their weathered sleeves,
Farmers bending with the autumn leaves.
Keyboard clack and a wrench’s ring,
Buses groan and the mail bags swing,
Every job is a thread we weave,
Into the flag of what we believe.
Pre-Chorus
Raise your hats, your gloves, your names,
From city lights to country lanes,
Turn the engines down today—
Hear the heartbeat, let it play.
Chorus
It’s Labor Day, light the grill and pass the flame,
For the doers, the makers, the ones who paved the way.
From the picket lines to pay stubs saved,
From sunup sweat to starlit praise,
We rest, we sing, we celebrate—
This Labor Day.
Bridge
Here’s to the unions and the hard-won rights,
Weekends born out of weary nights,
Safety signs and a safer wage,
Voices loud on an open stage.
Here’s to the hands that lift us all,
Catch each other when we fall,
Step by step, we found the road—
Shoulder to shoulder, we carried the load.
Breakdown
Ooh, let the hammers quiet down,
Let the rivers of traffic slow,
Ooh, take a bow, take your crown,
You’re the story this country knows.
Chorus
It’s Labor Day, light the grill and pass the flame,
For the doers, the makers, the ones who paved the way.
From the picket lines to pay stubs saved,
From sunup sweat to starlit praise,
We rest, we sing, we celebrate—
This Labor Day.Wave the smoke into evening gold,
Tell the tales that never get told,
Tomorrow the gears will turn again—
But tonight, we honor where we’ve been.
On Labor Day.