[Intro]
[One low guitar note answers each strike of the floor tom.]

[Verse 1: Approver]
Inside the field office, beneath a broken clock,
I open archived work orders from the local maintenance box.
Change request forty-four B: “Credential update delayed,”
“Operational priority”—the same excuse we always made.
The manager wrote “temporary,” the vendor wrote “agreed,”
The budget column marked the work as nonessential need.
At the document’s bottom, beneath the date and time,
My name appears in perfect blue—approval digitally signed.

[Chorus: Approver]
The cost of one click is counted in beds,
In pumps gone dry and names of the dead.
I cleared the warning, I buried the red,
The cost of one click keeps clicking in my head.
The cost of one click is counted in beds.

[Verse 2: Approver]
I did not write the password or connect the water main,
I did not mute the depot horn or overload the chain.
I only chose tomorrow when the choice was “now” or “late,”
I only kept production moving through a scheduled update.
The room was full of voices saying shutdown costs too much,
No one asked what failure costs when one account can touch
The fuel, the grid, the traffic lights, the hospital ahead—
I chose the smaller number, and the larger number bled.

[Pre-Chorus: Approver]
I did not light the flame,
But I signed beneath the name.
I did not launch the breach,
But I left the door in reach.

[Chorus: Approver]
The cost of one click is counted in beds,
In pumps gone dry and names of the dead.
I cleared the warning, I buried the red,
The cost of one click keeps clicking in my head.
The cost of one click is counted in beds.

[Instrumental]
[Bass carries the vocal melody while the guitars strike isolated, unresolved chords.]

[Bridge: Approver]
Responsibility is rarely clean,
It hides between the lines unseen.
A thousand small approvals built the span.
But I can seal the door I left for someone.

[Breakdown]
Deferred, approved.
Production never moved.
Deferred, signed, ignored.
One click became a ward.

[Final Chorus: Approver]
The cost of one click is counted in beds,
In Eli’s badge and the words left unsaid.
I cleared the warning, I buried the red,
The cost of one click keeps clicking in my head.
I know where the backbone threads—
I’ll pay for that click where the copper line ends.

[Outro]
I fold the signed approval
And place it in my coat.
No password on the paper—
Just my name beneath the note.
