Cold Wires, High Walls, and a Higher Climb

Cold Wires, High Walls, and a Higher Climb

Verse 1 — Ukraine

Night poured fire over Kyiv and Kharkiv, drones like wasps, missiles like knives in the cold. A hospital bruised, a maternity ward crying, the city shivering as the radiators went stone. They called it barbaric while the desert talks faltered, Abu Dhabi rooms echoed but never broke ground. Rare fangs of war flashed in the freezing darkness, and power lines failed with a thunderless sound.

Sources:

• Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,431 - Al Jazeera
• Ukraine: Russian strikes left much of Kyiv without heat, water and power - NPR
• Ukraine war updates - Ukrinform
• Russia-Ukraine war updates: Talks end in Abu Dhabi without breakthrough - Al Jazeera

Chorus

Hold on, hold on, through the wind and the wire, through the headlines that sting and the smoke of the fire. When the sky turns hard and the news grows grim, we find a hand, we light a hymn. Hold on, hold on, let the night unwind— we bend, we break, we heal, we climb.

Verse 2 — Winter Storm

A white wall rolled from red rock to pines, ice on the branches, a roar in the north. Sirens and salt trucks, grounded planes waiting, the polar heart of the world tumbling forth. Porchlights flickered across the Gulf and the valley, breath turned to glass on a downtown street. Somewhere in Austin a candle burned lonely, as the cold took a name no one wanted to speak.

Sources:

• January 2026 North American winter storm - Wikipedia
• Maps show where winter storm threatens to bring heavy snow, ice - CBS News
• Winter storm live updates: Multiple deaths reported, nearly 900,000 without power - ABC News
• Dangerous winter storm, extreme cold on the way - NOAA
• As the winter storm rages, here's what to know in your state - NPR
• 2026 Winter Storm - FEMA

Chorus

Hold on, hold on, through the wind and the wire, through the headlines that sting and the smoke of the fire. When the sky turns hard and the news grows grim, we find a hand, we light a hymn. Hold on, hold on, let the night unwind— we bend, we break, we heal, we climb.

Verse 3 — Capitol Standoff

In the marbled halls they’re counting the ceiling, arguing midnight while the clock swallows days. One side says split the border from the ledger, one side says package it and don’t look away. A shooting back home turned the floor into flint, names like Klobuchar, King, and Kaine took a stand. The House sent a bundle, the Senate drew lines, and a shutdown shadow crossed the land.

Sources:

• Alex Pretti killing: Government shutdown odds grow over DHS funding - CNBC
• Senate Democrats will block government funding after Border Patrol shooting - Washington Post
• Democrats Threaten Shutdown After Latest Minneapolis Killing - Bloomberg
• Second fatal Minneapolis shooting puts Congress on verge of shutdown - The Hill

Verse 4 — Vaccine Crossroads

A chart got rewritten in a downtown office, six small shields moved behind whispered doors. Rotavirus, flu, hep A and B, meningitis, RSV—now talk it through more. Parents and doctors caught between pages, some states said, we’ll keep the old guide. Lawyers weighed risk, nurses felt worry, and public health trembled on the tide.

Sources:

• Alex Honnold Completes Historic Live Climb of Taipei 101 - Netflix Tudum
• Alex Honnold successfully climbs Taipei 101 - Yahoo Sports
• US climber Alex Honnold free soloes Taipei 101 - Taipei Times
• U.S. rock climber Alex Honnold reaches top of Taipei 101 skyscraper - NPR
• Alex Honnold completes rope-free climb up Taipei 101 skyscraper - NBC News
• Climber Alex Honnold free solos Taipei 101 skyscraper - CBS News

Verse 5 — Taxes Open

The IRS threw open the window for filings, a brand-new form with a fresh extra page. Tips and overtime, the wheels that get you working, a nod to the elders for the weight of their age. They called it a beautiful bundle of changes, car loans counted where they hadn’t before. The season begins with a click and a question: will the refund be kinder than the year we wore?

Sources:

• Here's how 'shared decision making' for childhood vaccines could limit access - NPR
• RFK Jr. overhauls childhood vaccine schedule to resemble Denmark's - NBC News
• RFK Jr. guts the US childhood vaccine schedule - The Conversation
• States go their own way as RFK Jr. shifts federal vaccine policy - Stateline

Verse 6 — The Climb

He walked up the wind of Taipei’s high shoulder, no rope, no net, just grit on the steel. Postponed for the weather, then live to the world, he said it was brutal, and all of us could feel. Higher than any city daredevil before him, a first in the clouds where the air turns thin, he found each edge like a promise kept, and the skyline breathed when he pulled himself in.

Sources:

• IRS announces first day of 2026 filing season - IRS.gov

Bridge

There’s a hush in the wire and a howl in the weather, a vote on a razor, a shot in a sleeve. A ledger of burdens we carry together, and one quiet climber who teaches belief.

Final Chorus — Exciting Ending

Hold on, hold on—strike a match in the storm, let the frost on the glass become light being born. When the world leans hard and the headlines bite, we reach, we rise, we make our own height. Hold on, hold on—feel the city-heart chime: from the rubble and the rime, from the gridlines and the deadline, from the flatline to the lifeline— we bend, we break, we heal— and we climb, we climb, we climb!