[Intro] [Instrumental: piano plays incomplete versions of the three-note motif with long spaces between phrases.] A red line crossed the house in two; One half was me, one half was you. A clerk looked down and tapped the gap: “You fall outside the proper map.” [Verse 1] [Female mezzo: displaced child] They folded west where home had been, Then drew a road through field and kin. The wagon wheel, the soldier’s list, The winter wrapped around my wrist. A later child behind a wall Heard unfamiliar officers call. Different year and different track— The map kept taking children back. [Chorus] [Both] We are children of the broken map, Folded through a courthouse gap. Lines moved east, then lines moved west; Every border failed the test. No child was ever born a trap— We are children of the broken map. [Verse 2] [Baritone] A banker shaded blocks in red, Then said the neighborhood was dead. A highway split the school from home; The tax line chose which child could roam. A mother waited by a phone, Her child detained beyond the zone. The form was stamped, the file complete; The law stayed clean; the room lost heat. [Chorus] [Both] We are children of the broken map, Filed beneath a numbered tab. Lines moved north, then fences rose; Every border changed our clothes. No child belongs inside a trap— We are children of the broken map. [Interlude] [Instrumental: cello holds one low note while piano taps uneven five-beat figures.] [Bridge] [Adult ensemble: child perspectives, no imitation] My road was marked removal. Mine was marked unfit. Mine was drawn in mortgage ink. Mine was a detention grid. Different hands held different pens; The line divided all our beds. [Break] [Spoken ensemble] A map can guide. A map can hide. A map can place A law inside A bedroom door, A schoolyard gate, A family meal, A child made late. [Buildup] [Ensemble] Give us paper. Give us thread. Place the missing roads in red. Mark the homes the state denied. Draw the children back inside. [Final Chorus] [Ensemble] We are children of the broken map, No more folded through the gap. Lines moved east and walls moved west; Still our stories outlasted the test. No child was ever born a trap— We are children of the broken map. [Coda] [Ensemble] We unfold the page and draw each other back. [Outro] [Both] The map is torn. The road is clear. Draw every child Beside us here.