[Verse 1]
Red dirt on the boots
western edge of a growing town
Big table, too many chairs
too many fists coming down
Fourteen names in a roll call
no room for a quiet cry
Hunting tags on the back door hook
someone always learning how to aim, not why

[Chorus]
In the scrub, in the scrub
where the gum trees choke the sky
Little boys grow hard and hollow
learn to pull and never ask why
In the scrub, in the scrub
where the echo swallows sound
What is lost out there in silence
always finds its way back to the ground

[Verse 2]
Father speaks with a foreign tongue
mother stares at the kitchen floor
Coins counted on a cracked plate
anger spilling under every door
Brothers brag about close calls
blue lights in the rearview glow
Stories sharpened like steel on stone
every dare gets harder to outgrow

[Chorus]
In the scrub, in the scrub
where the gum trees choke the sky
Little boys grow hard and hollow
learn to pull and never ask why
In the scrub, in the scrub
where the echo swallows sound
What is lost out there in silence
always finds its way back to the ground