Stars Not Extinguished

[Verse 1] Leave me here a little while, the century’s barely born, If you need me, call the code, sound the copper horn. I stood here at the telegraph’s first whisper down the line, Watched the future burning blue in kerosene and brine. I thought that steam was gravity that nothing could defy, That pistons would lift all men like gears across the sky. Spring would set the foundries loud, the coal-smoke in the breeze, Every blueprint drawn between our teeth fell easy as the seas. [Pre-Chorus] We swore that we were brave enough To outrun history— [Chorus] But gold don’t beat the weight of code, Or patent’s gravity. Towers grow, then bend and fall To safety’s apathy. Still the engines turn and burn, Still the wheel runs free— If I can’t save the world I knew, I’ll build what’s yet to be. [Verse 2] They chose the path of calmer ground, of gaslight neatly laid, Where progress dims to candlelight and sharp blades slowly fade. I cursed the walls of horse and plough, the bargain they became, The careful smile, the smaller fire, the tidy little name. History’s a ruthless guest that knocks at 2 a.m., Returns with all the brighter gears and breaks your clock again. I told myself that industry, if true, would never truly die— But iron is a colder wind beneath a softer lie. [Pre-Chorus] So I turned my face from what was gone And fixed it on the sky— [Chorus] The world is loud with trade and wires, With steel that threads the sea, Nations shouting through the dark On new electricity. Knowledge climbs from rung to rung, But wisdom walks slowly— If I can’t mend the broken past, I’ll forge the century. [Bridge] I dreamed of fleeing far away From rails and smoke and steam, To some pre-industrial horizon line Untroubled by the machine. But you can’t outrun the age you’re in, Or shed its skin like rain— We are children of the copper coil, Of voltaic, steam, and strain. [Final Chorus] Let empires shake beneath my feet, Let lightning split the sea, Let every throne of rust and fear Fall down in front of me. The stars are not extinguished yet, They burn in Tesla’s key— If I can’t crown the age of steam, I’ll crown circuitry. [Final Chorus Part 2] Let mountains hear the vow I make, Let oceans carry me— The future isn’t written stone, It’s fused in chromium. I rise with all the broken ones Who will not bend the knee— If I can’t hold the past I knew, I’ll build eternity. [Outro] Sound the horn— The storm has come, I walk into the grid. Not as the boy who wept for coal, But something silicon and rid. The current’s wild, the network’s spun, The world in surge and sway— I leave the shore with uranium in hand, And code my brighter day.