[Verse 1] We think the clock is a ladder we climb, Each rung more clever than the last in line, But time’s not a throne, it’s a turning wheel, What we forget is as real as what we reveal. We paved old roads with museum glass, Called it progress, divided from past, But bones don’t mean the minds were small, Just means their questions aren’t on our walls. [Pre-Chorus] Ink can burn and books can drown, Truth can sleep when cities fall...down. [Chorus] Don’t mistake the date for wisdom, Or the future for design, We are standing on inventions We no longer know how to find. The clock does not confer permission To assume we’ve learned it all— History is not a staircase, It’s a spiral from afar. [Verse 2] Some truths were locked behind a seal, Some sold to those who signed the deal, Some buried under changing tongues, Some lost when songs were never sung. Courts and crowns and corporate keys, Patents, prisons, libraries, What survives is what’s allowed, Not always what was strongest found. [Pre-Chorus] And genius doesn’t always scale, Some tools are built for storms, not rails. [Chorus] Don’t mistake the date for wisdom, Or the future for design, We are standing on inventions We no longer know how to find. The clock does not confer permission To assume we’ve learned it all— History is not a staircase, It’s a spiral from afar. [Bridge (half-time, reflective)] What good is a supercomputer If you can’t grow bread when the lights go out? What good is a global network If no one knows the land around? There were surgeons with stone and prayer, There were maps we can’t retrace, There were stars we forgot the names of When we learned to measure space. [Build] Not every craft is trending, Not every skill survives the feed, But survival is a fickle archive, Not a measure of what we need. [Final Chorus] So don’t mistake the date for wisdom, Or the future for control, We inherit broken libraries And convince ourselves they're whole. The clock is not a crown we wear, It doesn’t make us tall— History is not a staircase, It’s a spiral from afar. [Outro] We are not the end of knowing, Just another chapter’s ink, And what we lose will teach the next ones What they thought they didn’t need. [(soft)] Wined the watch… But read the past.
