I watched you build the fire from scratch
while I held the match
and called it mine
claimed every ember you coaxed from nothing
wore your smoke like a trophy on my skin
You were bleeding knuckles and midnight oil
I was the signature at dawn
stealing your exhaustion, your brilliance
your goddamn war
I’m the thief in the chapel, pocketing prayers
taking credit for miracles I never made
you’re the architect of temples I burned for warmth
and I stood in the ruins calling myself god
I’m the parasite king on a borrowed throne
feeding on your light while claiming I’m the sun
You gave me blueprints written in your blood
and I erased your name from every page
told the world I birthed this vision alone
immaculate conception of my genius
your hands were scarred from lifting stones I wouldn’t touch
but I wore the mantle you forged from your own teeth
and smiled for cameras
every accolade a theft, every award a grave I dug for you
while you worked in shadows I invented just to keep you there
Now the truth is coming like a flood I can’t outrun
drowning in the receipts of everything I stole
your voice rising from the graves I tried to hide
every lie I told becoming shackles on my wrists
I built an empire on your corpse and called it innovation
but ghosts don’t stay buried when the foundation cracks
you’re haunting every room I claimed as mine
making me choke on the legacy I counterfeited from your bones
What do I have when the masks fall off
when the spotlights reveal an empty shell
I’m just hunger with a microphone
just greed in human form
a vampire who mistook reflection for a soul
you were the heartbeat
I was just the echo
pretending reverberation was the same as being real