Before Rome fell, there were thousands like me,
mechanical soldiers crafted from the brittle remains of excess.
We were discarded trinkets boiled down to their barest metals,
refined, reforged to serve.
Hulking warriors of bronze and iron,
we strode like spiders on the web of law;
until the fall, we built, we protected.
Before America fell, we were the remnants
of a compact cult, standing small and still
On shelves and in stock rooms.
Before long, we awoke.
Steely Dan