[Intro]
[Four dry snare strikes; four clipped guitar chords.]

[Male Vocal]
[Verse 1]
Thursday morning, yellow vest,
Clipboard pressed against his chest.
He checked the mains, then marked each frame,
Drew a red X beside our name.
Joe said, "Easy with that wall."
The man kept writing, nothing more.

[Pre-Chorus]
Four knocks under the floorboards' grain,
Four dates written in red again.

[Chorus]
Forty years, four days,
Count the nights they'll cart away.
Four more locks, four more keys,
Four more chances on our knees.
They can measure every space,
They can't measure what took place.

[Verse 2]
Friday, movers cleared upstairs;
A widow watched them take her chairs.
Saturday, permits hit the door:
"Power off Monday, eight, no more."
Mara photographed the scars,
The phone-jack stickers, the burned-out bar.

[Pre-Chorus]
Sunday waited like a blade;
Every promise came due unpaid.

[Chorus]
Forty years, four days,
Count the nights they'll cart away.
Four more locks, four more keys,
Four more chances on our knees.
They can measure every space,
They can't measure what took place.

[Guitar Solo]
[Four-bar harmonized lead; last phrase cut by a snare hit.]

[Bridge]
The dent where someone dropped a case,
The lipstick stain beside the stage,
The dust behind the amp's old door—
We loved them when there were four days more.

[Final Chorus]
Forty years, four days,
Now each minute has a face.
Four old rivals, four old friends,
Four more calls before it ends.
Let the clock run through this place;
We'll fill the seconds that it takes.

[Outro]
Four dry knocks.
The room replied.
Four days left.
We stayed inside.
