If I'm just born once in a lifetime
Who am I to make things up?
I count the stars but will they count me?
Who am I to lift them up?
"Who am I?" the soldiers ask me
"Who am I?" ask the police
Who am I but a reflection of that uniform beneath
I was born on a forgotten day
Born on a forgotten day but I own the night
I own the night

I snuck back through time hacks
A mountain of stars over the sea
The rippling torment of solitude
I will reach you if only to shake you awake
Beneath the crust and mantle of this planet is a birthplace
A crystal of light peering through ocean breath and form
I am as conscious of its eye as in my essence, I am I
Both the music and the bombast of the storm
I own the night and the stars bright as suns of distant galaxies
I am the darkness of my earth-form holding space
I own the night and the spectrum of awareness and fatality
I take the form of every lover's face
Deep in the eye in the moon-like satellite of every pupil
I am the light in its wave-form
I am grace
I own the night and the dream-space of a planet in a planet
I own the night that each day works to erase

Copyright: Downtown Music Publishing
Writer(s): Saul Williams