Breath Sent Downriver — A Song Inspired by Direct Relief and partners send over a quarter million N95 respirators and protective gear to Democratic Republic of Congo frontline health workers during an Ebola outbreak.

[Verse 1]
They tape the cartons shut at dawn
White sails folded in a cardboard hull
Names we will never learn ride on
Past the bright freight yards and the dull
Somebody coughs behind a door
A tired nurse ties the rubber tight
The hallway hums like a hungry shore
And still they step into the light

[Pre-Chorus]
Not thunder, not medals, not a camera flash
Just hands on the seal and a heart in the mask

[Chorus]
Breath sent downriver, breath through the wire
A paper-white shield in a room full of fire
Hold on, hold on, let the black fear shiver
We are passing one lung like a torch downriver

[Verse 2]
The red dust rises under boots
A siren bends in the afternoon
A nurse writes hope in smaller loops
On a fogged-up face in a plastic moon
She hears the trucks in every inhale
She hears the strangers who packed the load
A million miles in a cotton veil
Less alone on the fever road

[Bridge]
If mercy has a warehouse floor
If courage has a shipping code
If love can cross an ocean poor
Then send it where the brave ones go

[Lead Guitar Solo]

[Final Chorus]
Breath sent downriver, breath through the wire
A paper-white shield in a room full of fire
Hold on, hold on, let the black fear shiver
We are passing one lung like a torch downriver

[Outro]
Fold it, fit it, face the weather
Breathe in pairs, breathe in weather
No one breathes alone forever