[Verse 1] We heard the call across the blighted plain: "Come, build a city where the sun is kind. Lay your own brick, and break your own chain, A home for every weary, willing mind." We came with nothing but the dust on our feet, And built the towers, wide and tall and deep. [Chorus] They called it the Edict of the Open Gate. A promise carved in stone, a destined fate. "A hearth for your family, a wall from the cold." A story of a future, bravely told. [Verse 2] For a season of turning, the dream was made real. The gardens bore fruit, the clear fountains ran. We forgot the old hunger, learned how to feel The simple, sure safety of a citizen. We thought the foundation was built to endure... A covenant written, a right made secure. [Chorus] They called it the Edict of the Open Gate. A promise carved in stone, a destined fate. "A hearth for your family, a wall from the cold." A story of a future, bravely told. [Bridge] Then the clarions sounded a different, colder tone. The heralds marched forth, with scrolls of their own. "The Open Gate stands, but the houses within... Are a privilege to be earned, a reward for your spin. You will vacate your homes, as a show of your faith, And prove your true value from outside the safe." [Verse 3] So we handed the keys to the homes we had built, And we took our new place on the rain-swept silt. They gave us a canvas to keep off the storm, A tent where a palace once stood, safe and warm. "Prove you are worthy," the new edict reads, "By surviving the hardship that your betters decree." [Final Chorus] They renamed it the Edict of the Open Gate. A joke carved in stone, a manipulated fate. "A tent for your family, a test for the cold." A story of a future, bought and sold. [Outro] And the towers stand empty... waiting for worth. While the founders' children... inherit the earth.
