[Intro]
[Piano begins a formal waltz; every fourth measure loses its final beat beneath a scratch of red pencil.]

[Verse 1]
[Clerk]
I catalogued the morning change,
A title moved, a bureau renamed.
A budget line was struck in red,
A footnote marked an office dead.
The margin held a narrow stain,
Then arrows crossed the page like rain.
By noon, the chart I used to know
Had lost three rooms and one whole row.

[Verse 2]
[Clerk]
The ethics rule was circled twice,
Then crossed beneath “administrative advice.”
The watchdog clause was marked “review,”
The public comment window too.
A signature in crimson dried,
Another safeguard slipped aside.
No headline caught the quiet link—
A country altered line by ink.

[Refrain]
[Clerk]
A republic in red ink,
Every margin made to shrink.
Every safeguard crossed before
The public has the time to think.

[Post-Refrain]
[Clerk]
At the bottom of the page,
Where the seal begins to sink,
I sign my name in black against
A republic in red ink.

[Instrumental Break]
[The three-beat piano waltz repeatedly drops to two beats as cello and guitars struggle to restore the missing pulse.]

[Bridge]
[Clerk]
The supervisor finds me late,
With copies stacked beside the grate.
“You know these pages must be burned.”
I answer, “Records must be learned.”
He lifts the loyalty stamp high;
I meet the stamp and do not lie.
“You serve the president,” he said.
“I serve the record,” I replied.

[Verse 3]
[Clerk]
I scan the charts, the notes, the names,
The altered rules, concealed remains.
I send one set to courts and press,
One set to those who signed “yes.”
The final copy stays with me,
Behind the portrait, under C.
A nation’s memory may sink—
Unless one clerk preserves the ink.

[Final Refrain]
[Ensemble]
A republic in red ink,
Standing closer to the brink.
But every safeguard crossed in red
Can show the public what to think.

[Final Post-Refrain]
[Ensemble]
At the bottom of the page,
Before the final seal can sink,
Ten thousand names appear in black
Across the republic’s red ink.

[Outro]
[Narrator]
The waltz regains its missing beat.
For one full measure, the scale balances.
Then boots approach the archive door.