[Intro]
[Instrumental: seven-beat guitar figure strikes beneath clipped cello notes.]

I lay beneath a silver pen,
A promise signed by solemn men.
The wax was warm, the language clean;
The rifles waited off the scene.

[Verse 1]
[Baritone]

My paper named a bounded ground,
A hunting path, a burial mound.
It marked the river, ridge and plain;
It swore the line would still remain.
Each witness pressed a careful sign,
Each soldier watched the dotted line.
The seal declared the bargain done—
The wagons moved before the sun.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Female mezzo]

A clause can bind the weak in court,
Then fail when power wants a port.
The ink stayed black, the honor pale;
A promise cannot jail the rail.

[Chorus]
[Both]

Treaties written in ash,
Promises split by the flash,
Ink on the table, guns at the pass,
Law for the weak and land for the brass.
Sign your name, then count the cash—
Treaties written in ash.

[Verse 2]
[Baritone]

A mining map crossed through my face,
A railroad claimed the treaty space.
A governor spoke of urgent need;
A clerk revised the theft as deed.
The court delayed, the camp advanced,
The survey chain and sabre danced.
They folded me inside a drawer
And called the broken border law.

[Pre-Chorus]

[Female mezzo]
The seal was whole, the country grew,
The written promise split in two.
One half became a settler’s right;
The other burned outside the light.

[Chorus]

[Both]
Treaties written in ash,
Promises split by the flash,
Ink on the table, guns at the pass,
Law for the weak and land for the brass.
Raise your flag where the pine trees crash—
Treaties written in ash.

[Solo]
[Instrumental: bowed cello bends the three-note motif; distorted guitar answers in 7/8.]

[Bridge]
[Call and Response]

[Baritone]
I was not vague.
[Female mezzo]
I was not lost.
[Baritone]
You knew the border.
[Female mezzo]
You knew the cost.
[Both]
Do not call betrayal fate
When profit chose the hour and date.

[Break]
[Choir]

Written.
Witnessed.
Broken.
Taken.
Filed.
Forgotten.
Not forgiven.

[Final Chorus]
[Ensemble]

Treaties written in ash,
Promises split by the flash,
Ink on the table, guns at the pass,
Law for the weak and land for the brass.
Open the drawer; confront the past—
No nation survives by a promise made ash.

[Coda]
[Ensemble]

The paper burns, but the claim holds fast:
What law has stolen, truth will unmask.

[Outro]
[Baritone]

The seal still shines.
The border passed.
My words survive
Inside the ash.