I was raised where the dark put dust in my chest,

milk on my lip, but I still learn how to stress,

mother moved smart, put a rock in her jaw,

father ate sons, called his hunger law.

I learned real early what a throne can do,

make blood turn cold, make skin split in two,

make love wear chains, make trust go thin,

make a boy want height just to not sink in.

Then I rose,

i wasn't soft,

not even clean,

not got blessed,

had mud on my skin and a storm in my breath,

had giants fall apart, had the hills all shake,

Why me? Because I don’t bend, I decide, I divide,

when I speak, men stop and walk aware from my side,

when I swear, that word bites down and stays,

when I lift one hand, whole courts change their ways.

I never carved my face somewhere for praise,

you did that work in your fear-filled days,

I just stood where the cold holds along,

paid for the crown every time I stayed strong.

I am the height that your eyes can’t keep,

I am the oath that invades your sleep,

I am the judge when the proud talk, stay save

I am the hand over law and over your grave.

My house was momentum with a feast on the side,

brothers took depths, I took height and the ride,

one got the sea and one got the dead,

I got the roof where the whole map spreads.

Sisters with the hearth, filled up with war,

all of us marked by the same old scar,

all of us born from a violent line,

all of us taught that love turns on my time.

Too many sons, too many heirs,

too many prayers thrown up in the air,

one from my skull with a plan of cold stare,

one through the hunt with frost in her hair,

one through the vine where the weak confess,

one through the lyre making grief sound dressed.

I built the vow and the cost of your greed,

I made the guest at the stranger’s board

something protected, not blood for swords.

Yes, I went hard, ask the ones I struck,

ask all the proud who confused rage with their luck,

ask all the mouths that kept calling my name,

then froze when the storm put truth in their face.

Fame is a prison with eyes for this bars,

hands all reaching like I’m not scarred,

so I pace that ridge where the cold wind lives,

count what I take, count what power gives.

I am the height that your eyes can’t keep,

I am the oath that invades your sleep,

I am the judge when the proud talk, stay save

I am the hand over law and over your grave.

They call me wise ‘cause I sit up high,

truth is, I learned how to not let things die,

learned how to grip till my hands went numb,

learned that a king gets feared before loved by some.

I watched heroes rot when the crowds got loud,

watched priests shine for gold while preaching for me proud,

watched men want favor, then curse of my hand,

want sun on their field, want rain on command.

If I let go, what holds, what breaks?

what drowns, what burns, what line still stays?

I am not that soft, but I know this weight,

even a god gets bent by my fate.

I am the height that your eyes can’t keep,

I am the oath that invades your sleep,

I am the judge when the proud talk, stay save

I am the hand over law and over your grave.