He painted Heaven with his hands While Rome forgot to breathe A single soul beneath the stone Spoke thunder through the eaves The silence of a thousand years Was shattered by one gaze A finger reached through mortal dust And lit the dome ablaze He carved the wrath, he shaped the fall The birth, the loss, the sin Alone he stood with burning light And frescoed all within Ceiling of fire, voices in stone He labored for God, but bled all alone A brush for a sword, a chapel for pain Each angel a mirror, each gesture a flame He painted the sky But fell with the rain The prophets weep in silent robes Their eyes have seen the end And Adam, reaching out for breath Still waits for God to bend Each muscle sings, each tendon screams In vaulted marble dreams He climbed the dome to fight with time And split eternal seams Ceiling of fire, voices in stone He labored for God, but bled all alone A brush for a sword, a chapel for pain Each angel a mirror, each gesture a flame He painted the sky But fell with the rain Was it faith, or was it madness? Was it glory, was it chain? Did he see the hands of heaven… Or just escape the hands of men? Ceiling of fire… Built from his bones Where beauty was born But he died alone.
