Rules of Engagement

Rules of engagement, write them into my pulse

Steel in the bloodstream, truth in the results

Target the darkness, lock on the unknown

If reason is a weapon, I won’t fight alone

Vector for morning—break the night in two

I fly by the compass that points me to “true.”

Call it obsession—I call it the oath:

I’ll guard the horizon and carry the growth

Check, check—comms green, wind from the west

Finger off the trigger till logic says “press.”

Maps of the ruins fold into my hand

Every broken signal still draws a command

Sirens of silence—the stone world hums

We count by equations, not beating drums

Name me a villain; I’ll answer with facts

Notches on rifles don’t balance the acts

Where others see chaos, I see a chart

Gridlines of motive, the latitude of heart

I don’t worship thunder; I audit the spark

And walk like a lighthouse across the dark

You say the future is made, not found—

Then show me the math that lifts off the ground

If genius is mercy and mercy is brave

Then mercy must also know when not to cave

Rules of engagement, write them into my pulse

Steel in the bloodstream, truth in the results

Target the darkness, lock on the unknown

If reason is a weapon, I won’t fight alone

Vector for morning—break the night in two

I fly by the compass that points me to “true.”

Call it obsession—I call it the oath:

I’ll guard the horizon and carry the growth

I’ve stared down horizons with frost on my breath

Measured each shortcut that bargains with death

“Ends and the means” is a coward’s refrain;

We test in the daylight, we fail and explain

There’s a boy with galaxies caged in his eyes

Trading in stardust and practical ties

A rival? Perhaps. A mirror? Perhaps twice

We duel with the numbers and both pay the price

Because power without proof is a loaded lie

And proof without courage will never try

So I bank through the crosswind, keep angle and trim

And argue with fate till the margins are slim

If hope is a circuit, it needs a ground;

If peace is a formula, write it down

No saint, no tyrant—just orders and choice

And over the radio, a complicated voice:

Line of sight isn’t always a line that you see

Sometimes it’s a theorem that sets you free

Sometimes it’s a rival whose brilliance bites

A star that corrects you in sleepless nights

I am not mercy—I am its edge

The hand that refuses to sign a vague pledge

Because mercy without measure can turn into rot

And justice without witness forgets what it sought

So I tune the receiver to reason’s tone

A narrowband courage that cuts to the bone

If dawn is a thesis, then cite me in red:

“Proceed with restraint—but proceed,” it said

Rules of engagement, etched into my veins

Written in choices, not in the chains

Aim at the unknown—let reason ignite

I’ll answer the dark without praying for light

Call it obsession—I call it the vow:

To question, to measure, to stand anyhow

If history wakes with a tremor of doubt

I’ll anchor its pulse and map a new route

Not to be sainted, nor feared for my role—

But to keep the equation intact and whole

For truth needs no weapon, no throne, no decree—

Only a witness who refuses to flee