Stale Bread and Neon

[Intro]
[Verse]
The dough don't rise for the poor.
Plywood locks the bakery door.
Seventy years of flour on floor.
Now a ghost of a store.
Faded tags under the spray.
Washed the local color away.
The sourdough starter is cold.
A legacy bought and then sold.
[Pre-Chorus]
The block lost its pulse today.
Watch the colors fade to gray.
Standardized and sterilized.
Look into their hollow eyes.
[Chorus]
Chain link and chain stores.
Closing up the local doors.
Fluorescent lights in the night.
Killing off the town's light.
We traded souls for a pill.
Standing on a concrete hill.
[Post-Chorus]
Traded souls for a pill.
On a concrete hill.
Traded souls for a pill.
On a concrete hill.
[Break]
[Verse]
Teens loiter by the neon sign.
Waiting in a corporate line.
Generic aisles and sterile tile.
Missing that neighborhood style.
They swapped the oven for pills.
To pay for the corporate bills.
The parking lot is a void.
Everything we loved is destroyed.
[Chorus]
Chain link and chain stores.
Closing up the local doors.
Fluorescent lights in the night.
Killing off the town's light.
We traded souls for a pill.
Standing on a concrete hill.
[Bridge]
Capitalism is a quiet thief.
Trading our history for grief.
Build a box, lose a home.
Underneath the plastic dome.
Brick by brick, strip the soul.
Digging out a deeper hole.
[Instrumental]
[Verse]
A baker’s dozen of broken laws.
Hidden in the franchise claws.
They slice the cake into bits.
Until the community quits.
From a handshake to a code.
Heavy is the mental load.
The town is a brand now.
We don't even know how.
[Chorus]
Chain link and chain stores.
Closing up the local doors.
Fluorescent lights in the night.
Killing off the town's light.
We traded souls for a pill.
Standing on a concrete hill.
[Outro]