Foreward
I didn't set out to write this piece.
It came through me the way exhaustion does
slow, quiet, and absolute.
Like many, I've been watching the world lose her shape
truth hollowed out, care turned into currency,
and suffering dressed up as inevitability.
I kept seeing the same pattern,
not just struggle, but design.
A wheel doesn't spin by accident.
It's built, maintained and greased with silence and fear.
This piece is an allegory,
but it's also a journal.
The devil in this story doesn't carry a pitchfork.
He signs contracts. He smiles in debates.
He thanks you for your labor
and leaves you with just enough to keep you alive, yet tired.
I wrote this for those who feel the weight but can't always name it.
This isn't a battle cry. It's a dirge for the living.
Because pain is not the end of us.
Because even ground-down voices can still hum.
And some songs
are stronger than the wheel.