The Ballad of the X-Date

The month of May is turning gray along the Potomac shore They're talkin' 'bout a wolf that's howlin' right outside the door Speaker Mac and President Joe, they draw their lines in sand While the credit of a nation's held in a shakin' hand They call it the X-Date, a mark upon the wall A self-inflicted wound to see who'll be the first to fall Oh, the wheel it turns, the fire burns, another story's spun

There's nothing new for me and you underneath the sun The big men shout in gilded halls of profit and of loss While the rest of us just carry our own small, heavy cross Then down the hall, a different kind, a warning soft and low 'Bout a thinking ghost inside a wire, and how fast the code can grow A man named Sam who built the thing, he stood before the great And said, 'Please bind this child I've made, before it is too late'

He spoke of jobs and futures lost, of truths you can't believe A brand new kind of magic trick tucked up a silken sleeve Oh, the wheel it turns, the fire burns, another story's spun There's nothing new for me and you underneath the sun The big men shout in gilded halls of profit and of loss While the rest of us just carry our own small, heavy cross So one man fights a phantom debt, a number on a page

Another warns of phantom minds he's building in a cage One fears the bill that's coming due, the other fears the dawn Of a world where what it means to be human is up and gone Oh, the wheel it turns, the fire burns, another story's spun There's nothing new for me and you underneath the sun The big men shout in gilded halls of profit and of loss While the rest of us just carry our own small, heavy cross