Paper Crowns

Verse 1

We used to rule these empty streets at two a.m.

Cardboard kingdoms and a half-dead lighter flame

Said we'd never settle for the same old names

Now the neon's cracked and the signs all look the same

Pre-Chorus

We were kings with nothing but a borrowed beat

Laughing loud enough to drown the concrete

But the night got heavy and the jokes got thin

And nobody told us how the story ends

Chorus

We wore paper crowns like they were made of gold

Thought the world would bend just because we told it so

Now the rain's coming down and the colors run

Paper crowns don't last when the morning comes

Yeah, we burned so bright we forgot the cost

Paper crowns... and we lost

Verse 2

You still talk like the city's waiting for us

I still keep the matchbox just because

Every plan we made is sitting in the dust

And the radio keeps playing songs we used to trust

Pre-Chorus

We were kings with nothing but a borrowed beat

Laughing loud enough to drown the concrete

But the night got heavy and the jokes got thin

And nobody told us how the story ends

Chorus

We wore paper crowns like they were made of gold

Thought the world would bend just because we told it so

Now the rain's coming down and the colors run

Paper crowns don't last when the morning comes

Yeah, we burned so bright we forgot the cost

Paper crowns... and we lost

Bridge

Maybe growing up is just learning how to fall

Maybe all those nights didn't mean that much at all

But I'd still light the match if you asked me to

One more time for the kids we used to be

Final Chorus

We wore paper crowns like they were made of gold

Thought the world would bend just because we told it so

Now the rain's coming down and the colors run

Paper crowns don't last when the morning comes

Yeah, we burned so bright we forgot the cost

Paper crowns...

Paper crowns...

And we lost