[Verse 1]
They said, "Adapt or disappear.
The age of work is ending here."
Each glowing screen declared it true:
"Your boss won't need a man like you."

They taught the code to learn our trade
And swore that fortunes would be made.
Then every boardroom changed its tone:
"Do twice the work, or work alone."

[Chorus]
We thought machines would take our jobs,
Rise from the code and reign as gods.
We thought a mind would wake one night
And leave us worthless by first light.

No mind awoke behind the screen,
No ghost emerged from the machine.
We lost our jobs before it knew
The things they swore that it could do.

[Verse 2]
They bought the chips, they built the halls,
They stacked the racks, they raised the walls.
Each quarter sang the same refrain:
"More chips, more scale, and then a brain."

It spoke with grace and wrote by rote,
Then mimicked every style and note.
Quite useful, yes, but not divine;
They staked it all on one headline.

They burned through power, debt and cash;
Their bold forecasts all turned to ash.
The lenders fled, the numbers bled;
The jobs were gone, the dream was dead.

[Bridge]
No robot came to take my chair,
No metal hand was waiting there.
No supermind erased my name;
Their promise did it just the same.

They sold tomorrow as today,
Took every cent, then walked away.
They spent the years that were not theirs,
Then left us drowning in arrears.

[Guitar Break]

[Final Verse]
Now I play beneath the track,
And the tunnels answer back.
Commuters hurry through the hall,
Never meet my eyes at all.

My old badge now lies on the floor;
I don't wear it anymore.
On cardboard, written plain and clear:
"No damn machine has put me here."

[Pre-Chorus]
We were useful all along.
They just built the future wrong.

[Final Chorus]
We thought machines would take our jobs,
Rise from the code and reign as gods.
We thought a mind would wake one night
And leave us worthless by first light.

No mind awoke behind the screen,
No ghost emerged from the machine.
We lost our jobs before it knew
The things they swore that it could do.

[Outro]
They borrowed from tomorrow,
Then tomorrow called their bluff.

The machines were never gods.

But the promise was enough.