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