Invisible Hands

((Intro))

((Soft hiss of fuel pump))

((Distant radio chatter))

((Breathing))

((Metallic percussion))

((Verse 1))

Digital numbers climb like fever

Cold blue light against my hands

Every gallon another sermon

From invisible men I’ll never meet

Refineries humming in the distance

Cathedrals built from pressure and flame

The market “corrects itself” they tell me

Funny how it never corrects for me

((Pre-Chorus))

Small increments

Tiny cuts

Death by decimals

Month by month

((Chorus))

Invisible hands around my throat

Twisting slow until the pressure shows

Everybody knows

Nobody says

The machine survives because we stay fed

Invisible hands inside the wire

Feeding panic straight into the fire

Every crisis monetized

Every fear assigned a price

((Verse 2))

Scrolling headlines

Manufactured panic

Expert voices dressed in practiced calm

Like arsonists discussing weather patterns

Watch the signs rise before the storm hits

Watch them fall long after it’s gone

Elastic morality stretching thin

Depending who the suffering belongs to

((Bridge - polyrhythmic spoken section))

Supply chain

Conflict zone

Pipeline

Shipping route

Economic pressure

Temporary spike

Temporary

Temporary

Temporary

((Breakdown))

There’s a rhythm to extraction

A pulse beneath the street

A thousand engines idling

Beneath exhausted teeth

((Final Chorus))

Invisible hands around my throat

Calm enough to keep me working

Quiet enough to keep me broke

Invisible hands inside the walls

Turning suffering into forecasts

Turning people into fuel

((Outro))

Fuel pump click

Silence

Engine turns over anyway