King of Sunken Cathedrals

Behold the man who promised us a kingdom in the sun

And then became the architect of what it has become

A swampland of resentment, a palace built on sand

The most beautiful and ruinous mirage in all the land

You taught the congregation how to sing a hymn of hate

You told them they were chosen as you locked the pearly gate

And left them on the outside, defending your good name

While you were playing solitaire, a solitary game

You are the patron saint of every mirror that is cracked

The author of the emptiness, the space where something lacked

You are the final chapter of a story of decay

The monument to everything we threw away

All hail the King of Sunken Cathedrals, the lord of low-lit rooms

The keeper of the grudges and the tender of the tombs

Where our better angels lie now, in a silent, shallow grave

All hail the lonely king that all the broken people save

Yeah, you can have your kingdom, you can have your rusty crown

But you're the King of Sunken Cathedrals in a city that is drowned.

You found the cracks in everything, the fractures and the flaws

You didn't come to heal them, you just wrote them into laws

You gave the darkness language, you gave the rage a face

You took the hope of millions and you put it in its place

Behind a wall of anger, beneath a tide of fear

And whispered that salvation was exclusively in here

With you, the great savior, the answer and the light

The one thing that could justify their long and losing fight

You are the patron saint of every mirror that is cracked

The author of the emptiness, the space where something lacked

You are the final chapter of a story of decay

The monument to everything we threw away

All hail the King of Sunken Cathedrals, the lord of low-lit rooms

The keeper of the grudges and the tender of the tombs

Where our better angels lie now, in a silent, shallow grave

All hail the lonely king that all the broken people save

Yeah, you can have your kingdom, you can have your rusty crown

But you're the King of Sunken Cathedrals in a city that is drowned.

So reign upon your island of delusion and regret

We will be the ones who pay your monumental debt

We'll be sifting through the wreckage for a thing you couldn't kill

A stubborn, quiet memory that is living in us still

And history will tell of you, in its unforgiving prose

Of the emperor of nothing in his imaginary clothes.

All hail the King of Sunken Cathedrals, the lord of low-lit rooms

The keeper of the grudges and the tender of the tombs

Where our better angels lie now, in a silent, shallow grave

All hail the lonely king that all the broken people save

Yeah, you can have your kingdom, you can have your rusty crown

But you're the King of Sunken Cathedrals in a city that is drowned.