Andrea Gibson - Orlando lyrics

When the first responders entered the Pulse
Nightclub after the massacre in Orlando
They walked
Through the horrific scene of bodies and
Called out, "If you are alive
Raise your hands"
I was sleeping in a hotel in the Midwest at
The time, but I imagine in that exact moment
My hand twitched in my sleep
Some unconscious part of me aware
That I had a pulse that I was alive
The next day
I woke to the news that an assault
Rifle had fired 202 bullets to a
Gay bar on Latin Night in one
Of the worst massacres in US
History the massacre of people who did not
Leave the dance floor when they
Heard gunshots because they thought they were
Just the beats of a song
Everyone around me spent that day


Grieving and every tear
Tasted like someone's dance sweat
Drying in the morgue later that night
I was performing for an audience that
Had spent two hours in
Line waiting to get through the
Bag checks and metal detectors on stage
I couldn't keep my hand
From covering my heart
I kept scouring the club for the
Fastest route to every exit i knew the
Person working security was in a
Text war and wasn't keeping his eyes on the
Door i knew there was a man
In the fifth row picking at the seams
Of a duffel bag every few seconds
I died the balcony for the glint of whatever
Might aim to tear the bodies of the
Spirit's of the boys holding
Hands or the girls
With hair cut short as my temper
When rage is a decimal I can
Actually get to when I
Not just grieve, sick and ruined
Watching history not be history
But in the music not be music knowing
Someone having the best night of
Her whole life said, "This
Is my favorite song
" and then a rifle lifted
Over a bathroom stall
And emptied a magazine into the kidneys of a
Grown man texting, "Mommy I'm going to die
" his hand prints in blood on
The wall reaching for people
Dying in the fetal position people
Covered in their friend's blood
Sobbing too hard to hide
From their own deaths people
Outside pushing bandannas into bullet
Wounds it's true
What they say about the gays
Being so fashionable their
Ghosts never go out of style even life
It's like funeral practice
Half of us are already dead
To our families before
We die half of us on our knees trying
To crawl into the family photo that night on
Stage i kept remembering being
Fifteen at Disneyland
Wearing my best friend's hoodie like it
Was my boyfriend's class ring
How many years it took me to
Just touch her face how many
Years I spent praying my heart
Could play dead to the
Threat was gone to the world
Changed till history was history, but
History just keeps coming for the
High, shooting up bodies
Kids drumming up reasons
To have metal detectors at poetry
Readings with the poems they're
Just unanswered calls to people
Who claim their God, their
Apathy, is unwilling to accept
The charges dear God, how broke
Do you have to be to not buy people
Time to get out the fucking door when
The song goes to hell
When this world drunk on hate
Decides blood is wine and
Drinks it's fill in the only place they ever
Thought was safe and the only place
They thought they did not
Have to hide in, the only
Place they were wanted because
Because of who they loved and how they loved
And how they loved
Till someone walked to the bodies
And asked who was
Still alive and hardly anyone
Put their hand up