Gilded Cage (Version 2)

Verse

Concrete walls, gold on the door

Money counting, I count for more

Chain mail coat with an IPO suit

Sweat and steel where the wolves took root

Gilded cage is built to hold me in

City lights through the iron skin

I'm a god forged from stock reports

Warrior of profit, nothing to prove

Pre-Chorus

Rust behind the glint on my chest

Every triumph feeds the beast

Can I still feel something true

Underneath this armor new

Chorus

I'm caught inside a gilded cage

Golden bars but I don't break

Iron heart in an iron age

Trading freedom for a king's wage

Verse 2

Burning cities, boardroom chairs

Same cold hand behind the flames and fires

Chest full of cash, empty inside

This is what my ancestors died for

My name on the marble, their blood on the street

Fortune built on the dead who'd repeat

I rise with the morning, I fall at night

A king without a kingdom, just light without light

Pre-Chorus

Rust behind the glint on my chest

Every triumph feeds the beast

Can I still feel something true

Underneath this armor new

Chorus

I'm caught inside a gilded cage

Golden bars but I don't break

Iron heart in an iron age

Trading freedom for a king's wage

Bridge

Take it away, take everything

Just the weight of what I've become

No crown, no throne, just this chest of mine

Empty now, so maybe I'm free at last

Outro

The cage goes quiet, gold turns to rust

I stand outside myself, dust by dust