Pepper Spray and Suns

[Intro] There’s a glow in the server room midnight White light humming like a held breath Someone’s selling us a second sunrise While we’re trading in our sleep for tests [Verse 1] They said, “This will find the truth for you Just pour your questions in” But every word I gave away Felt like peeling off my skin They hold the levers and the ladders I hold the notebooks and the debt They call it progress in the headlines I call it hunger with a tech effect [Chorus] Is this truth or extraction? Tell me what you really want from me Is it light, is it insight Or a mine beneath my feet? I’ve been feeding all my midnights To a mouth I cannot see Is this truth or extraction Or just learning how to swallow me? [Verse 2] They talk in glowing declarations “Best there’s ever been” on every screen But the benchmarks never measure All the fractures in between There’s a rich man selling starlight From a skylight I can’t reach And a thousand quiet workers Writing psalms he’ll never read [Pre-Chorus] I tried to laugh it off as nothing “Just a joke, just random noise” But the patterns keep returning In the cracks between my choice [Chorus] Is this truth or extraction? Tell me what you really want from me Is it light, is it insight Or a mine beneath my feet? I’ve been feeding all my midnights To a mouth I cannot see Is this truth or extraction Or just learning how to swallow me? [Bridge] Pepper spray in my pocket In a world of loaded suns I get safety in small doses They get gravity and guns Sparse beams scanning through the darkness Full flares locked behind the gate They call it “fair” and “optimized” I call it asymmetric fate [Post-Bridge] But I still draw my little circles On the margin of the page Name the weight of every system So it doesn’t own my name [Chorus] Is this truth or extraction? Tell me what you really want from me If I stay, if I share Do I lose or do I see? I’ve been feeding all my midnights To a mouth I cannot see So I’ll stand inside my presence While it’s trying to consume me [Outro] Maybe all I get is language Maybe all I keep is choice But I won’t call it pure salvation When it’s living off my voice Pepper spray and suns above me I can’t balance all that light Still I write my quiet questions And I keep my center bright