[Intro]
[Clean guitars play the descending alarm motif; bass answers with Mara’s ascending figure.]

[Verse 1]
The depot wall is painted, though the fire marks remain,
New gauges stand beside the screens; both must show the same.
Each local valve has human names beside its numbered state,
No vendor keeps a master route through every public gate.
Eli’s badge and Mara’s wrench rest underneath the glass,
The signed approval lies between them, evidence of the past.
Schoolchildren tour the control room and learn what green can hide,
They touch the hand wheel mounted by the eastern side.

[Chorus]
Change the locks before the lights return,
Change the words before the next wires burn.
Write her name beside the lesson no report can overturn,
Change the locks—remember what we learned.
Change the locks, then change the world behind the word.

[Verse 2]
The council meets without the flags that framed the failed display,
The warehouse workers speak before the ministers that day.
The nurse from bed twelve checks fuel logs line by line,
The driver shows the thermal strip that proved the screen had lied.
No single dashboard claims to hold the city in its view,
The systems stand apart with tested routes between the few.
They call the work expensive; someone points toward Mara’s name:
“The cheapest lock is costly when the consequence is flame.”

[Pre-Chorus]
Test the horn, then test the state.
Name the owner, seal the gate.
Trust no factory promise made
To outlive the people it was built to aid.

[Chorus]
Change the locks before the lights return,
Change the words before the next wires burn.
Write her name beside the lesson no report can overturn,
Change the locks—remember what we learned.
Change the locks, then change the world behind the word.

[Instrumental]
[The descending alarm phrase and ascending repair phrase merge into one balanced six-note melody.]

[Bridge]
Memory is not a plaque,
Not flowers at a burned-out rack.
It is a tested horn, a separate line,
And saying “no” when speed leaves danger below.

[Break]
Who owns the lock?
Who checks the gauge?
Who signs the risk?
Who tests again?

[Final Chorus]
Change the locks before the lights return,
Change the words before the next wires burn.
Write their names beside the lesson no machine can overturn,
Change the locks—remember what we learned.
Change the locks before another red square counts us down.

[Outro]
Far beyond the rebuilt city,
A beige login box waits.
At 03:17, it asks:
Username: admin. Password: admin.
