Granite

[Intro] A Dot Teller Eight forty-seven — elevator doors Badge clipped. Name by the glass Same floor. Still standing [Verse 1] They clipped my name beside a badge and coat Another entry walking through the door I sit beneath the light, reduced to notes A headcount on a ledger, nothing more The coffee cools beside a muted note Decisions land before I get a say The ceiling hums above my margin notes My blueprint’s buried under files they weigh I learned this silence from a red-ink sheet A curbside morning cut me to the bone Ten years in mud turned pressure into concrete This boardroom cold can’t crack the stone They scan my surface, never feel the heat They talk from a cheat sheet — polished disservice Built on purpose — not a row to delete Worthless on your spreadsheet — still I resurface [Chorus] They skimmed my surface, never clocked the furnace Marked me as surplus, still I kept my firmness Filed me as worthless — still I held my purpose Built from the furnace — watch me resurface They skimmed my surface, never clocked the furnace Marked me as surplus, still I kept my firmness Filed me as worthless — still I held my purpose Built from the furnace — watch me resurface [Verse 2] Calls get made before my voice is authorized My name gets pinned to tasks, not to the plan They hear compliance louder than my throat And miss the weight inside the quiet man The trust I built gets coldly itemized Cold coffee rings around another deadline Like pressure never settled beneath my coat They measured every flaw and missed the spine Bike gone, curbside locked me in a freeze-frame That dawn left nothing standing, no safe ground The mud turned broken balance into skill It taught me how to stand without a sound They scanned the frame, missed the living flame The ledger weighed what it was never built to bear They read my silence as a lack of will The furnace was always there [Chorus] They skimmed my surface, never clocked the furnace Marked me as surplus, still I kept my firmness Filed me as worthless — still I held my purpose Built from the furnace — watch me resurface They skimmed my surface, never clocked the furnace Marked me as surplus, still I kept my firmness Filed me as worthless — still I held my purpose Built from the furnace — watch me resurface [Bridge] Past nervous, past broken — unseen Quiet versus the machine — low-key The sentence came unspoken — cold and clean Worthless was your verdict — I never entered a plea [Verse 3] Mirthless fluorescent light can’t flatten what’s inside That mud already forged the man they misidentified Granite bears the load where nothing else withstands Surface reads missed the furnace in these hands One purpose deeper than a payroll line All-purpose tool in their eyes — not mine I hold the load their metrics can't withstand I bear the load through every reprimand Every cracked floor gave the pressure context Every wrong metric sharpened what comes next Every closed door left a blueprint to rebuild No badge required — scar tissue made me skilled [Outro] Purpose carved on a stone tablet — never paper Badge pinned against my jacket — just another layer Name in my chest — never processed Still pressed — quiet and self-possessed Still standing Badge on the desk they couldn't clip my worth