Sable Crown, Borrowed Throne (version 2)

Intro

Soot on the visor, sable crown at four a.m.

Foreman's chair still warm from the shift before him

Keys on my hip like a king with no kingdom yet

Verse 1

Pops ran the floor for thirty years, ledger and a limp

Left me the whistle and a coat that never fit

Furnace breathes orange, throws light on the ring

I slide it on cold, call it a borrowed thing

Night crew watches, waiting on the tilt to pour

I read the gauge like scripture, steady on the floor

Every scar on these knuckles is a lesson in heat

Learned to love the burn before I learned to eat

Ladle swings heavy, molten gold like a debt

I carry what he carried, wear the sweat he sweat

Timecard says Ferris, but the sign still says his name

I'm punching in a legacy, not just a shift, not just a claim

They handed me the chair when the old king went down

Said wear it till the sun, then hand it back around

I count the hours like rosary beads, one by one

By six I'm just a son again, the borrowed crown undone

Chorus

Sable crown, borrowed throne, I rule it till the light

Ash on my hands, but I carry it right

Every king in this yard's just a shift away from gone

So I wear the crown like a debt, then I pass it on

Verse 2

Delgado said a soot king ain't nothing but soot

I let the ladle answer, watched the doubt shift loose

Line jammed at three, alarms started ringing

Everybody froze but the chair taught me timing

I called the shutdown quiet the way pops used to

No panic in the voice, just the weight moving through

Cooled ingot steady, crew breathing slow again