Paper Kingdoms

I walk a tightrope made of fear, stretched thin across the life I can’t outrun

Every step feels like a warning, like the world will break before I’m done

My pockets hold the ashes of the dreams I burned to make it through the night

And every climb I take toward daylight only drags me deeper out of sight

I chase a flicker in the fog, a dying spark that barely lights my way

Hoping one day I’ll break free, but freedom always feels too far to stay

The maps I draw keep tearing, and the roads collapse beneath the weight I bear

And all I’ve got are fractured hopes I stitch together just to breathe the air

I’m fighting tides that rise too fast, dragging me below before I reach the shore

Building ladders out of broken bones, climbing harder than I ever have before

My dreams drift out like smoke, dissolving in a sky that doesn’t look back

And all I want is one small chance to stand somewhere I’m not defined by lack

I plant my hopes in a wasteland where nothing grows and everything turns cold

Walking through the ruins of a future that I never had the chance to hold

The clock becomes a hammer, beating down the seconds I can’t keep in place

And every time I rise, life swings again, leaving fingerprints across my face

I light a lantern made of scraps, watching shadows crawl like hunger down the wall

I search for strength beneath the rubble, but the answers never seem to come at all

The ground keeps cracking under me, turning every promise into something false and weak

Still I scrape for anything to cling to, just enough to make it through another week

I’m fighting tides that rise too fast, dragging me below before I reach the shore

Building ladders out of broken bones, climbing harder than I ever have before

My dreams drift out like smoke, dissolving in a sky that doesn’t look back

And all I want is one small chance to stand somewhere I’m not defined by lack

Maybe someday I’ll find shelter where the storm can’t tear the last of what I’ve got

A place where pressure doesn’t crush, where all these battles weren’t for nothing fought

But for now I walk the fault lines, with a pulse that barely keeps its fire lit

Holding tight to jagged hope, bleeding hands but refusing to quit

I’m still fighting tides that twist my steps, rewriting every dream before it starts to rise

But I keep stitching light from darkness, even when the dawn hides behind its own disguise

My dreams drift out like smoke again, but still I chase them through the wreckage and the cold

’Cause all I want is one clear breath—one moment where I’m finally in control