[Intro]
[Crooked piano and organ play the circuit motif as glasses click in triplets.]

Welcome, buyers. Take a chair.
Every woond is listed there.
Fear by region, rage by age--
Fresh division, priced per page.

[Verse 1]
[Ensemble - Merchants]
We buy the second after shock,
The finger frozen near the clock.
We buy the breath before reply,
The urge to share before asking why.
A grieving father makes good reach;
A public hanging makes a speech.
A careful study cannot compete
With one red word and marching feet.

[Verse 2]
[Ensemble - Merchants]
We know the phrase that splits a town,
The photograph that drags it down.
We place the rumor near the fact
And charge them both for being tracked.
We do not care which claim you choose;
The winning side is time you lose.
Love may leave the viewer whole--
Anger digs a deeper hole.

[Pre-Chorus]
Count the pause.
Price the mention.
Turn the pulse
Into retention.

[Chorus]
We are the merchants of attention,
Outrage is our pension.
Every woond becomes retention,
Every lie extends the session.
Merchants of attention--
Fear is perfect audience detention.

[Verse 3]
[Ensemble - Merchants]
The president supplies the spark;
The platform keeps you after dark.
The network sells the outraged face;
The sponsor buys the safest space.
A newspaper removes a line--
Its blankness trends by half past nine.
Resistance, worship, doubt and dread:
Four advertisements before bed.

[Verse 4]
[Ensemble - Merchants]
A veteran speaks of oaths and law;
We clip the anger, cut the cause.
A migrant tells how threats arrive;
We place a makeup ad at five.
A worker shows her damaged hand;
We recommend a luxury brand.
Every testimony, once displayed,
Becomes the shelf where goods are laid.

[Post-Chorus]
Stay upset.
Stay online.
Your enemy
Improves our time.

[Instrumental Break]
[Upright low strings walk through the 12/8 groove while brass quotes fragments of televised debate music.]

[Bridge]
[Mezzo Lead]
You call us users. What do you use?

[Ensemble - Merchants]
The hesitation before you choose.

[Mezzo Lead]
You call it speech. What do you sell?

[Ensemble - Merchants]
The shortest road from fear to hell.

[Bridge]
[Mezzo Lead]
Who benefits when neighbors fight?

[Ensemble - Merchants]
Whoever owns the screen that night.

[Mezzo Lead]
And when the country breaks apart?

[Ensemble - Merchants]
We sell the footage, chart by chart.

[Breakdown]
Attention in.
Compassion out.
Increase the threat.
Reduce the doubt.

[Breakdown]
We need no faith.
We need no side.
Only eyes
That will not slide.

[Final Chorus]
They are the merchants of attention,
Outrage funds their intervention.
Every woond becomes retention,
Every lie extends the session.
Merchants of attention--
Division is their shared convention.

[Outro]
The crooked jingle loses pace.
No buyer meets another's face.
One empty screen reflects the room--
The merchants see their private tomb.