[Intro]

The top-floor coffee stayed warm.
I never asked who changed the pot.

The lift doors opened when I came.
I never asked where they did not.

[Verse]

I thought the distance came with scale,
a necessary polished rail.
I signed a rule: "Summaries first."
It taught each warning to arrive
with rounded edges, calm and kind.
I praised the people who brought peace.
No order said, "Do not be true."
But every order shaped the view.

[Chorus]

I built this distance,
floor by floor and brief by brief.
I called silence confidence.
I called absence relief.
I signed every private doorway
that could lift me above you all.

[Verse]

The gold pin never weighed a pound.
It still announced when I came round.
My calendar said "People Hour."
The people had no booking power.
But Ben had never seen my chair.
Mara knew I was not there.
Priya sent the raw release,
then watched its sharper language cease.

[Chorus]

I built this distance,
lift by lift and floor by floor.
I said my office door was open.
No one's badge unlocked the door.
Not cruelty, not one command—
just systems built to remove the human hand.

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge]

I cannot leed by touring pain
one night, then climb above again.
Open the reports before they're dressed.
Let Support speak without a chain.
No punishment for bringing loss.
No praise for hiding future cost.
Ignorance cannot remain
a privilege attached to my name.

[Breakdown]

The view was wide.
The view was clean.
The view removed what lay between.

The glass was clear.
The glass was tall.
The glass was still a wall.

[Build-up]

Take down the filter.
Stop the brief.
Name every warning.
Name the need.

Let the future
start beyond the hall.

[Final Chorus]

I built this distance,
floor by floor and choice by choice.
Now the first repair is listening
to the unprepared voice.
I can stop rewarding shadows
for protecting me from sight.
But the hand upon the highest door
still helped to raise the wall.

[Outro]

Victor removed the golden pin
and placed it on the notebook's spine.

He wrote:

"Direct reports from Support."
"Night staffing."
"Release authority."

The last line waited
without a mark:

"No new initiative
until the basics start."

A knock came at the door.
The Directors entered.