Cardboard Saints Lyrics

There's a parade of ghosts tonight

Cardboard saints on heavy shoulders

Their smiles are painted, smeared and bright

Through a town that's only growing colder

They march through silence, promises loud

Empty words for an empty crowd

I see them swaying side to side

Nothing behind those hollow eyes

What do we believe when they fall

All those idols, paper-thin

What do we believe when they fall

And leave us alone with what we've been

The town square's filled with broken sighs

The saints' colors start to run and die

They drip like ink from a weathered pen

Melting down under unseen rain

The murmurs rise, a restless noise

Tired eyes and shattered poise

The saints, they tremble, start to bend

The processional slowly turns to end

What do we hold when they burn

Cardboard saints, they twist and turn

What do we hold when they burn

When every promise turns to dirt

The sound breaks down, the ground shakes loose

I see the saints in slow collapse

Their hollow forms just crumple in

Their smiles torn like old-time scraps

People's eyes are showing cracks

Paint peeling off, revealing black

And we all see what we built was false

Only ghosts to carry our loss

We watched them fall, we watched them turn

Nothing left but empty urns

We watched them fall, we watched them die

And all the lies lit up the sky

We watched them fall, we watched them fall

And no one here believed at all

The music fades, the echoes stay

A lonely note that slips away

Painted smiles gone, just empty halls

The saints are dust, and we are small