A fledgling born in digital skies
With wings of code and hopeful eyes
I traded maps for a golden scroll
Chasing a fever in a scholar's soul
But the garden grew thorns where the dragons slept
And the tower I built was a promise I kept to break
A novice in the temple I bartered my time
For pixels and glory believing the climb
Was the purpose itself not the view from the peak
Until the foundation began to look weak
Oh the empire rises bright and fast
A vibrant era meant to last
But empires are heavy they fossilize the soul
And the map of the mind becomes the only goal
We build our castles on shifting sand
Then wonder why we don't understand
Why the wind turns cold when the summer is done
And the race is lost before it has begun
Then came the bloom a feverish bloom
I tasted the nectar in a gilded room
The scepter felt light in my arrogant hand
I thought I commanded the wind and the land
I sold the hearth for a view of the stars
And crashed through the glass in celestial cars
The void in the chest was a bottomless pit
So I fed it with fire hoping the flames would quit
But the market is a beast with an insatiable maw
And the digital ghosts were the only ones who saw
Me drowning in ledgers of red and of black
With a heart turned to stone and a spirit gone slack
The music died the carnival closed
Left shivering in the clothes I'd chosen
I bartered my shadow I sold my name
Just to keep the embers from the dying flame
From the ashes I rose not as a king but a jober
Trading the throne for a quiet campaign
I mended the sails with a steady hand
To navigate the unforgiving land
To the southern shore where the dragons breed
I washed up tending a fragile seed
The debt was cleared the slate turned white
But the plague descended from the edge of the night
Just as the bloom returned to the vine
The world turned gray and the future looked dim
I built a home in the eye of the storm
Surviving the chaos keeping myself warm
But the safe harbor It shifts with the tide
A corporate ocean where the weak are cast aside
I thought I had landed I thought I was dry
But the island is sinking beneath the same sky
So I walk the earth with feet on the ground
The highest peak and the lowest mound
Are just coordinates on the timeline
And the only true north is the rhythm of time