It's day forty-eight of what you call the siege You've been scrabbling at my gate, but it's high and hard to reach All my watchmen are alert, they know they cannot flee They're silent like the city, now it never sleeps But what's your game? Heaven knows Hell, you think your light will grow If you squeeze it out of me, like my destruction is your dream So you think I'll tire out, if I bruise, and break, and bleed I'll give up, you'll wear me down, I'll call the casualty But no such luck, babe (mmm) If this was all it takes, years ago, I'd have left this town If I was gonna break, by God, I'd have donе it by now But I don't break, I bend (I don't break, I-) And what I lovе, I will defend You'll see it at the end Where I grew up, words were bullets that were firin' every day I'd watch 'em from my turret, enduring all the strays Some of the shit that I've been through, I can't bring myself to say In polite company, it's too twisted for the page You don't know the half of paths through fuckin' Hell I've had to pave You don't know the half of scars that seared and sculpted me this way What you see is that I bear it with a smile on my face So you're crazy if you think that you're the reason I will change 'Cause you're not the first to see my kingdom, and then say it's yours to take To strip me of my title, and then throw me in a cage You stole my echo and my Eden, and then turned my mind a maze But I was forged a phoenix, always rising from the grave Yeah, you fucked up, babe If this was all it takes, years ago, I'd have left this town (I'd have left this town) If I was gonna break, by God, I'd have done it by now (I'd be broken down) But I don't break, I bend (I don't break, I bend) And what I love, I will defend You'll see it at the end And it's not a siege to me, when there's a battle every day Spent a quarter century quiet, sitting on this rage So no white flag's gonna wave, and no battlements will break And no cavalry will cave, I'd rather set the city all ablaze You don't know what I can take It's day forty-nine of what you call the siege But all I have is time to wait for your retreat