The Contract Written in Gold

**Verse 1** Come closer, children, hear the river speak, Older than kingdoms, older than the weak. The mountains kept a ledger no hand could erase, Every vein of metal remembered every face. They came with shining promises, With maps drawn straight and bold. Some carried books... Some carried guns... But all could smell the gold. **Pre-Chorus** Signed in gold, Sealed in blood, Written beneath the ancient mud. Not by the earth... The earth gave free. But by the hands that claimed the key. **Chorus** The contract written in gold... Echoes wherever the trade winds blow. Diamonds leave, The villages wait. Copper leaves, The children wait. Oil leaves, The rivers wait. The ships grow heavy... The homeland waits. For wealth can leave a nation's shore, Yet leave its people wanting more. **Verse 2** The cobalt fed a thousand sparks, Yet candles still lit up the dark. The forests sailed as timber beams, While empty hands rebuilt their dreams. The water flowed. The farmland fed. The rare earth woke the world instead. The treasure traveled every sea... But little journeyed home to thee. **Bridge** Do not mistake our wealth for stone. It never lived beneath alone. Our songs survived. Our drums still call. Our thousand tongues remember all. A child who learns... A field that's sown... A people standing on their own... No empire mines What hearts create. No market measures A nation's fate. **Final Chorus** Signed in gold, Sealed in blood, Written beneath the ancient mud. But hear me now... A wiser page Can still be written By this age. Let every mine... Let every well... Lift every village just as well. For the richest treasure The world can hold Has never been The buried gold.