My Minotaur

Clock and chains on my wrist, name tag, fake laugh

Clenched jaw, boss talks, my mind

Walks out past this dead-end car park

Kept a picture in my wallet: me on the road, wind in my teeth

Chrome shining like a promise too far for a kid like me

I was manifesting fire in a world of cold

Dreams in the dark, they were made of gold

Thought I was buried, but I was being sown

I just wanted a life that could feel like home

If it's by myself or with someone true

I'm done begging fate for a different view

I keep calling my future through the smoke and scars

'Cause I was born to outrun my Minotaur

Every "yes, sir" felt like lying, like selling off a piece of spine

Friends turned into empty chairs, my heart clocked overtime

In the mirror, tired stranger, eyes like a flickering fuse

But under all that dust and danger

Something wild refused to lose, yeah!

I was manifesting fire in a world of cold

Dreams in the dark, they were made of gold

Thought I was buried, but I was being sown

I just wanted a life that could feel like home

If it's by myself or with someone true

I'm done begging fate for a different view

I keep calling my future through the smoke and scars

'Cause I was born to outrun my Minotaur

You ever feel like there's a monster built just for you?

Not teeth and claws, but deadlines

Debt, doubt, a maze of "maybe later"

My Minotaur wore a necktie, sat in meetings, told me, "Be realistic"

Said, "People like you don't get out

" And I believed him... for a while

But here's what they never tell you

The maze is made of choices, not walls

Every "no" you swallow, every "yes" you hate, that's another brick

You built this prison so you can tear it down

So this is for the night-shift saints

The underpaid, over-giving ghosts

The ones who were told to shrink

You are not their hallway, you are the door

One step, one scar, one stubborn, stupid ounce of faith at a time

You keep walking even when your legs shake

You keep calling that future by its name

Because the beast isn't guarding the exit—he's guarding your throne!

I was manifesting fire in a world of cold

Dreams in the dark, they were made of gold

Thought I was buried, but I was being sown

I just wanted a life that could feel like home

If it's by myself or with someone true

I'm done begging fate for a different view

I keep calling my future through the smoke and scars (Yeah!)

On dawn, I cracked my eyes

No alarm, no crooked time

Sun on steel outside my door

Keys that shook me to my core

Chrome pipes gleam in the morning light

Hot coffee, clear mind, open sky

I breathe in deep that familiar fuel

And realize I've been carried through

I swing my leg, hear the engine roar

I got everything I was aching for

Laugh out loud in the rising sun

The maze is gone... I already won