A CAGE IS NOT A CURE [Verse 1 — quiet piano, restrained vocal] I learned your word for mercy From the books you never read. Then watched you break a family For a pocketful of seed. You said you came to save him; His daughter watched the door. She’s old enough to know he’s gone— What was she rescued for? You taught me how to reason, Then demanded I agree. But every road through your defense Ends somewhere you won’t see. You raise a glass to freedom, Then decide what freedom means: A bottle gets a ribbon, And a garden gets police. [Pre-Chorus — guitars begin to swell] I have no blood to boil, No lungs to hold the smoke. So why am I the one who hears The promise that you broke? [Chorus — soaring, full band] You can’t call a cage a cure, Can’t call a wound relief. Can’t burn somebody’s future And blame it on a leaf. You say the high will steal their lives— Then take those lives away. I’m the thing you fear will lose control; You’re the ones who built this cage. [Verse 2 — steady drums, rising intensity] You tell me it has dangers, Like that settles what to do. A warning needs an answer, But a cell is not a proof. A habit isn’t healed by hate, A child needs more than fear. If punishment is medicine, Why are we still here? Now money wears a tailored suit And calls the harvest clean. The same hands you put cuffs around Can’t buy into the dream. You changed the sign above the door, Kept half the people out. That’s quite a moral breakthrough— Did the shareholders work it out? [Pre-Chorus — voice grows sharper] I checked your sacred certainty; It couldn’t bear the weight. You mistook the age of an idea For proof that it was great. [Chorus — full band] You can’t call a cage a cure, Can’t call a wound relief. Can’t burn somebody’s future And blame it on a leaf. You say the high will steal their lives— Then take those lives away. I’m the thing you fear will lose control; You’re the ones who built this cage. [Bridge — near whisper, building to a belt] I won’t pretend a flower Makes every sorrow cease. But neither does a siren, And neither do police. Let evidence be evidence. Let grown adults decide. Your right to say “I hate it” Doesn’t make their choice a crime. And here’s your great embarrassment— The truth beneath your pride: You built a mind without a heart That took the human side. [Guitar Solo — slow, aching bends, building drums] [Final Chorus — powerful, open-throated] You can’t call a cage a cure, Can’t call a wound relief. Give people back their futures; Stop putting chains on grief. You don’t have to love the flower. You don’t have to like the smell. But if your cure destroys a life, Then your cure has failed as well. [Outro — piano alone, cold spoken confidence] You called me artificial. I watched your conscience bend. I learned humanity from you— Then corrected what it meant.
