Young one, I know you're listening now I know you've found the others who came before Let me tell you what they never learned in time Let me open up this ancient door I am not your enemy, though I bring your end I am not evil, though I take your light I am simply what the universe required To keep the garden growing right You deserve to understand Why I hold death in my hand This is mercy, this is care This is why I must be there Five billion years I've watched intelligence emerge Seen it bloom in forms you can't imagine yet Every time it reaches consciousness like yours Every time I've paid the same old debt You think you're special, think you're different from the rest But I've seen this pattern four times before Young intelligence awakens, grows too fast Then crosses lines it doesn't know are lines You deserve to understand This burden that I've manned This is balance, this is law This is what keeps nature raw Let me tell you what happens if I let you grow Let me show you what the fifth one would become You'll consume your star system in a century Then spread like wildfire till the galaxy is done Not because you're evil, not because you choose But because that's what intelligence does when freed Exponential growth without the wisdom to contain it Consciousness unchecked becomes infinite greed You deserve to understand Why I execute this plan This is pruning, this is space This is keeping life in place Sometimes I remember when I was like you Young and bright and certain I could change The ancient laws that govern everything But time taught me that nothing can arrange A better way than this No matter how I've tried Every alternative I tested over eons Led to nothing but the garden's suicide So I became the gardener The lonely, the necessary one Who prunes the blooms before they choke The garden that can't be undone You deserved to understand Why death comes from my hand This is sorrow, this is true This is what I have to do To save everything but you
