Prometheus: Chains Of The Fire-Bringer

In the world before the dawn
Silence held the night
I walked the dust with stars
Their whispers cut with light
From clay and brittle dreams
I shaped a breathing new
With steady, careful hands
I traced a face made true
Their eyes were glass to sky
Their hearts were trembling seeds
In helpless, hungry forms
I heard uncounted needs

Athena bent and breathed a spark
A golden wind through hollow dark
They rose like ghosts from rock and sand
Blind children of an untamed land

No fur to warm their rattled bones
No talon, tooth—just mortal skin
They huddled close to cold, to stones
Afraid of dusk, afraid within
What beasts have claws and wings for flight—
I saw in them a different sight
My children, blind to fire's grace
Still searching for the gods in face

But thunder crowned the mountain's rim
A throne of law, an iron hymn
Zeus watched with eyes of tempered steel
Held tight the ceiling, locked the wheel
He spoke: "No flame for flesh and clay
Let mortals crawl and fade away
No blaze, no forge to lift their hand—
Let darkness rule in every land."

Yet in the chill I tasted grief
The hollow breath, the broken leaf
A promise smoldered in the air—
I would not watch them drown in prayer
So silent-footed, oath and fire
I crossed beneath the eagle's ire
From guarded halls of burning gold
I wrenched the light the heavens hold

I brought them flame—the wild, the bright—
A star to fill their open hands
To pierce the black and name the night
To write with sparks on silent lands
Around the blaze the tribes awoke
With hammered song and leaping smoke
The fire crowned each hopeful brow
With every spark they learned the how

Oh, burn for me, immortal pain
The fire that shapes, the fire that chains
Let gods decree, let tyrants reign—
Still hope will rise in every flame
From bitter stone to iron sky
Let mortal gaze meet godly eye
If I must suffer, bleeding, bound
Let freedom rise from stolen ground

But wrath descends with eagle scream
There is no mercy for a dream
The chains bit deep the hands that stole
And every dawn unpicked my soul
Upon this cliff my shadow dries
The sun and moon ignore my cries
Each day an eagle tears my flesh
Each night I heal to bleed afresh

I keep the count of grateful eyes
Of hands that warm their newborn skies
In agony I mark the days
And hold their future through the haze
Pandora opens grief and ache
The world learns how a heart can break
Yet even sorrow hides a spark
A secret ember in the dark
For hope survives in agony—
The costly toll of destiny

Oh, burn for me, immortal pain
The fire that shapes, the fire that chains
Let gods decree, let tyrants reign—
Still hope will rise in every flame
From bitter stone to iron sky
Let mortal gaze meet godly eye
If I must suffer, bleeding, bound
Let freedom rise from stolen ground

Night's long restraint begins to crack
A distant footstep shakes the black
Heracles roars against the storm
The eagle falls, the iron warms
My broken shackles kiss the ground
The mountain breathes a wider sound
The fire lives—it will not hide
I stand, though scarred by law and tide

I watch new mornings bloom from coals
Hear anvils teach the timid souls
See cities rise from ash and rain
See wisdom tempered, courage plain
I am the wound that dared to heal
The theft that taught the world to feel
The bridge between the clay and star
The price inscribed on every scar

Oh, burn for me, immortal pain
The fire that shapes, the fire that chains
Let gods decree, let tyrants reign—
Still hope will rise in every flame
From bitter stone to iron sky
Let mortal gaze meet godly eye
If I must suffer, bleeding, bound
Let freedom rise from stolen ground

I am the spark, I am the scar
Remember me when nights are far
Call out my name in rage and prayer—
Prometheus, forever there