Golden towers built on fractures Marble facades hiding the rot They're selling you salvation While they're looting what you've got The emperor parades in his finery While the foundation crumbles beneath You can smell the decomposition If you dare to look beneath the sheath They weaponize your fear and anger Point your rage at your neighbor's door While they're loading up the coffers And installing locks on democracy's store Watch them smile for the cameras Watch them lie through their teeth Watch them dismantle the guardrails While you're scrolling, half-asleep This is the rot ascending This is the core collapsing This is what surrender looks like When you normalize the poison This is the rot ascending This is the last pretending That the sickness isn't terminal That the center still is holding We built monuments to the idea Chiseled words into stone "Of the people, by the people" Now it's just the people left alone The infection spreads from the head down Necrosis in the halls of power And we argue about symptoms While they're selling off the final hour Accountability is just a word When no one's left to enforce it Justice is just a statue When they've blinded her on purpose You can see it in their eyes now That predatory gleam They're not even hiding anymore The corruption is the regime They call it "drainin' the swamp" While they poison the well Scream about "freedom" and "patriots" While they build a velvet-lined cell This is the rot ascending This is the dream descending This is what complicity looks like When silence is compliance This is the rot ascending Past the point of mending Can you smell the decay yet? Or are you still pretending? Are you still pretending? Still pretending? The pillars crack The foundation splits We pretend we don't notice Until it all collapses The golden age was always Just gold paint over rust Scrape the surface See the rot
