[Intro]
[Clean guitar and cello play the three-note motif beneath a slow twelve-beat pulse.]

[Verse 1]
[Parent]
I set the cardboard box beside
The boots you left there overnight.
My badge lay face-down on the chair;
You saw it and you stopped the stair.
You asked me why I came at three,
Why guards had walked outside with me.
I said, “They changed the rules today.”
You touched the seal, then looked away.

[Verse 2]
[Parent]
You knew the map above my desk,
The floodplain charts, the storm requests.
You knew I stayed when rivers climbed,
And missed your play three separate times.
I served the red, I served the blue,
I signed no oath to either crew.
But now the work I once maintained
Is called resistance—and is chained.

[Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Civil service in chains,
Years of duty turned to stains.
We kept the bridge through ice and rains;
Now loyalty replaces names.
Civil service in chains—
Who serves the public when fear reigns?

[Interlude]
[Cello carries the vocal melody while the drums fall silent for eight bars.]

[Bridge]
[Parent]
You opened up the box and found
A brass award wrapped tightly round
The folded flag from ’ninety-nine,
A faded note in your design:
“My dad helps people he won’t meet.”
You red it twice beside my seat.
Then placed my badge above the line
And said, “That oath is also mine.”

[Build-up]
[Together]
Not to a face.
Not to a chair.
Not to the loudest voice in there.
Not to a flag used as a chain—
But to the people, field and plain.

[Final Chorus]
[Ensemble]
Break civil service from its chains;
Let duty keep its honest name.
We held the bridge through ice and rains,
Through changing seals and altered claims.
Civil service must remain—
The public trust is not a chain.

[Outro]
[Narrator]
At dawn, we carry the empty box
Back past the agency gate.
You leave the old brass badge
Beside the first protest sign.