[Intro]
[Marching snare and bowed cello advance beneath isolated typewriter strikes.]

[Verse 1]
[Witness]
At seven sharp the email came,
No greeting line, no sender’s name.
A coded list, a column marked,
A policy position dark.
My twenty years became a cell,
A letter, number—Schedule F.
The printer coughed, the hallway chilled;
The coffee pot stood half-unfilled.

[Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Play the Schedule F funeral march,
Past marble steps and metal arch.
No bugle calls, just printers bark;
We bury service in the dark.
File by file and name by name,
They lower merit into blame.

[Verse 2]
[Narrator]
Maria kept the water clean,
James knew each failing turbine screen.
Anne tracked storms before they grew,
Malik checked what contracts knew.
No banners hung above their desks,
No party oath shaped their requests.
But competence became suspect
When facts refused to genuflect.

[Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Play the Schedule F funeral march,
Past marble steps and metal arch.
No bugle calls, just printers bark;
We bury service in the dark.
File by file and name by name,
They lower merit into blame.

[Interlude]
[Cello carries a descending lament while the snare continues at half volume.]

[Bridge]
[Witness]
My father said, “The oath is plain:
Serve through sunshine, serve through rain.
Administrations come and go;
The river gauge must always show.”
I kept that oath through flood and flame.
Now silence is the safer name.
A nation does not lose its spine
In one great fall—but line by line.

[Breakdown]
[Counsel]
Fold the flag upon the file.
Clear the photographs and dial.
Take the mug, the coat, the key.
Leave the chair for loyalty.

[Final Chorus]
[Citizens]
Stop the Schedule F funeral march;
Turn back the drums beneath the arch.
A public oath is not a mark
For private vengeance in the dark.
Name by name, reclaim the frame—
Let merit live beyond one name.

[Outro]
[Narrator]
The elevator reaches ground.
Four boxes cross the lobby floor.
Behind them, someone changes the nameplate
Before the glass door closes.