[Intro]
[Instrumentation: distorted bass descends one semitone with every elevator chime]

Ground.
One.
Lower me.

[Verse 1]
The porter’s gone to emergency,
So June says, “Take her down for me.”
I smooth the sheet above her feet,
Then wheel her past the vending heat.
The lift arrives with mirrored walls,
A polished box that swallows all.
I press the button marked B2;
The doors seal slowly over blue.

[Chorus]
Elevator to B2,
Carry one and carry two:
One beneath the folded sheet,
One still standing on her feet.
When every floor demands a part,
And every door divides the heart.

[Verse 2]
At level three the doors divide:
A newborn cries, a father cries.
A midwife mouths, “Wrong lift,” then grins;
The closing silver cuts them thin.
At level one a cleaner waits,
Her yellow cart, her swollen veins.
She sees the sheet and bows her head;
No prayer spoken, nothing said.

[Chorus]
Elevator to B2,
Carry one and carry two:
One beneath the folded sheet,
One still standing on her feet.
When every floor demands a part,
And every door divides the heart.

[Instrumental Break]
[Instrumentation: metallic rim percussion and bass mimic cables pulling through a shaft]

[Verse 3]
Between the floors the lift goes still,
The emergency lamp turns ill.
A speaker crackles, loses tone;
For twelve long seconds we’re alone.
I touch the sheet above her hand,
A useless act I understand.
Then current catches, numbers glow,
The box remembers where to go.

[Bridge]
B2 opens on the hall
Where plaster saints have lost their gold.
A ledger waits beside the stand.
Names and dates in different hands—
A hidden map of failed demands.

[Build-up]
Arthur, four seventeen, alone.
Evelyn, five thirteen, at home
Only through a daughter’s call.
Beside each name: “Not enough staff.”

[Second Build-up]
A siren rises through the floor.
Then two. Then three. Then several more.
The chapel bulb begins to swing.
Upstairs, every monitor sings.

[Final Chorus]
Elevator from B2,
Carry back what I now know:
Every name below this floor
Leaves a weight I carry more.
When every floor demands a part,
The basement keeps the missing heart.

[Outro]
[Instrumentation: lift doors open to layered alarms and the bass motif accelerates]

Ground floor. Emergency.
The doors divide. The building bleeds.