**[Intro – low, distant]** Yeah. I tried to drown it. Didn’t work. **[Verse 1]** Substances cannot sedate the brain of an escapist I chased a calm I never found, just different stages Every vice a temporary truce with my reflection I don’t need a savior, I need less direction The only high that makes me sane is pain of those I hated Fuel from every slight, every lie I tolerated I learned to carry it precise, no dramatization Pressure makes a blade, not an explanation **[Pre-Chorus]** Drawing from frustrations, my greatest illustration Calling me an artist But I’m only your creation Built me from your silence, sharpened by neglect If I sound calculated, it’s ‘cause chaos taught me math **[Chorus]** Bitch, I never begged for the cause So it’s nothing lost I don’t mourn what never wanted me involved I’ma break away, find an island, and I’m fucking off No smoke signals, no applause Just me gone **[Verse 2]** I don’t pray for mercy, I negotiate with truth Every scar a footnote, every doubt a proof You confuse my distance for resentment or retreat Nah, I just stopped bleeding in the street Everybody wants a piece when the engine finally hums But nobody was here when it was falling apart in chunks Now they say I changed—yeah, that’s kind of the point I don’t owe the past a second joint **[Pre-Chorus]** You call it selfish when I don’t repeat the cycle I call it discipline, survival with a rifle scope Still aiming inward, still correcting my alignment I don’t need your label, I define it **[Chorus]** Bitch, I never begged for the cause So it’s nothing lost I don’t miss a room that was built on applause I’ma break away, find an island, and I’m fucking off No goodbye songs, no monologue Just gone **[Bridge – half-time, reflective]** If pain made me, then I made peace with the cost If hate fueled the fire, I learned how to exhaust I don’t glamorize the damage, I itemize it Then close the book and don’t romanticize it **[Final Verse]** They said I’d fade without the noise, without the crowd Funny how I hear myself the clearest now I’m not healed, I’m honest, that’s a different lane I don’t numb the ache—I integrate the pain **[Outro – calm, resolved]** No substances. No saviors. No cause to die for. Just distance. Just clarity. Just me fucking off.

Cave