[Intro]
Coffee cools by the phones,
Chair wheels tick on tile.
One screen blinks, one screen loads,
Nobody names the shift.

[Verse 1]
Phone stopwatch, face-up.
Dashboard seconds climb.
Current trailed by minutes;
now it closes in on time.
An editor: “Twelve.”
Another: “Nine.”
Ben marks the margin
on scrap paper, tight and small.

Cursor refresh.
Chair wheels bite.
Coffee rings spread wider
under the monitor light.
Blink goes first by half a breath,
Current nearly there.
Leo keeps his pencil still,
listening to them compare.

[Chorus]
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Close enough to sting.
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Still not first in line.
Read the number, say the margin,
Let the room decide—
Almost at the same time,
Thirty seconds behind.
(behind)

[Verse 2]
+00:30 on the board.
Somebody laughs too loud.
Near-simultaneous alerts
make the room go quiet.
Not a race, he thinks.
Then they call the split:
“Seventeen.” “Eleven.”
“Four.” They stay with it.

Ben’s notes get crowded.
Columns lean and bend.
Each improved result
makes the smaller gap sting.
Cursor reload.
Chair wheels glide.
Current did the work;
the work became the game.

[Chorus]
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Close enough to sting.
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Still not first in line.
Read the number, say the margin,
Let the room decide—
Almost at the same time,
Thirty seconds behind.
(behind)

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 3]
Leo says, “The timestamp
only tells us when.
Measurement is not judgment,
and judgment makes the call.”
No one argues.
No one writes.
The dashboard keeps its seconds
in clean, indifferent white.

[Bridge]
Leo cuts the room:
“Time is not the call.
Speed is not the truth.
A number marks arrival.
It does not judge the work.
Use seconds as the standard,
and judgment leaves the room.”

[Final Chorus]
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Close enough to sting.
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Still the losing side.
Read the number, say the margin,
Watch the room divide—
Almost at the same time,
Still a step outside.
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
No one lets it slide.
Thirty seconds behind,
(behind)
Small enough to hide.
Thirty seconds behind,
Too close to call it clean.
(BEHIND!)

[Outro]
Phone stopwatch, face-up.
Dashboard still alive.
Ben leaves one blank line.
No one fills it in.

[End]