I Swore as a child money lights a name

Life never handed a stage to someone with that claim

Reality wiped my face and handed me a person who bought the hours of my hands

A sheltering blaze that should save but only sears

He swore I'd buy him a future was it his or was it mine

My Genesis kept her silence folded into fear

My verses breathed in scratches the bars still lingered near

I whispered my wounds into a lamp that promised light

It flung my flaws back bright and raw

Then the gas leaked slow and every step burned

I Learned that leaving costs blood the sky won't bend for free

If I wanted out I'd have to bleed until the clouds could see

I hoarded stubborn songs against the coming storm

Then fled that cage and found new chains in different forms

They pointed remember he fed you when you were small

I answered he fed my body not the nights he sold my all

They sharpened words like knives I saw predators in their masks

They played the victims to the crowd an ugly scripted art

I never learned their rules I only brought my heart

I thought money would be a shield but it needs a guard

I thought music would be bread turns out dreams don't fill a plate

Here I am again clocking low paid days

Clutching at the hollowed heart of all the life that slipped away

The years rewrote every plan I made

Just battered dreams weighed down by years of dust

My music is the last warmth I tend the one thing I still claim

I keep wishing that this ember will swell and light my name

Until the lights return I'll sing through every ounce of pain

I'll show him what became of me