Time Is Money (In Time)

Lyrics

The fable goes like this.
In a time not so far from now, the engineers solved death.
Or rather, they paused it.
At twenty-five, the body stops. Perfect. Preserved.
And on your forearm, a gift appears.
A clock. Glowing green.
Counting down from one year.
Your inheritance. And your cage.

In the zone they call Dayton, everyone runs.
You run for the bus, it costs you two minutes.
A cup of coffee costs you four.
Your mother, Rachel Salas, runs to meet you.
The bus fare inflates by an hour she doesn't have.
Her clock flashes red, red, red.
She dies on the pavement, an arm's length away.
The greeting on the street is not "hello."
It is, "Got any time?"

The metaphor is made flesh.
Time is money, etched in your skin.
A handshake, a transfer of life.
The wealthy of New Greenwich hoard their millennia,
while the poor time out in the gutter.
The first rule of this economy is simple.
For a few to be immortal, many must die.

Will Salas crosses the zone.
He sees the immortals. They walk slowly.
They have time to waste, time to burn.
At the casino, a man named Henry Hamilton
bets a century on a single hand of cards.
He is tired of living forever.
He tells Will the system is rigged,
then gifts him a hundred years and times himself out
in a desolate alley. A quiet protest.

The metaphor is made flesh.
Time is money, glowing in your skin.
A handshake, a transfer of life.
The wealthy of New Greenwich hoard their millennia,
while the poor time out in the gutter.
The first rule of this economy is simple.
For a few to be immortal, many must die.

Observe the efficiency.
No gold, no paper, no code.
The body is the bank.
The currency is the heartbeat itself.
The Timekeepers are not police. They are auditors.
They ensure the poverty is maintained.
They protect the assets of the rich.
This is not a flaw in the system.
This is the system.

A transfer is made. A life is saved.
A vault is robbed. A million years given away.
But somewhere, right now, a clock is beeping.
Zero.
What is the exchange rate for a breath?