[Intro]
[Instrumentation: three monitor tones multiply until guitars and drums strike together]

[Verse 1]
Five thirty-one, the radio breaks:
“Seven incoming, motorway.”
Five thirty-two, the ceiling dims,
Emergency power coughs and spins.
Five thirty-three, the red doors spread,
Glass in hair and oil on skin.
Five thirty-four, June shouts my name:
“Pediatrics—Leo seized again.”

[Pre-Chorus]
Room twelve calls. The vent runs low.
Leo’s lips have lost their glow.
One pair of hands, two failing lines—
Choose a door and call it time.

[Chorus]
When the monitors sang,
Every note became a name.
When the monitors sang,
Every room demanded blame.
Three tones high, one current gone—
I learned what “not enough” had done.

[Verse 2]
I send the student down to twelve,
Tell Hale that Leo needs me now.
His mother grips the plastic rail,
Her wedding ring strikes steel like hail.
I draw the dose, June clears the bed,
The boy turns rigid, eyes rolled back.
Across the radio someone cries:
“Manual bagging—pressure’s flat.”

[Pre-Chorus]
Room twelve calls. The vent runs low.
Leo’s pulse begins to show.
One life steadies, one line dies—
No one wins where numbers choose sides.

[Chorus]
When the monitors sang,
Every note became a name.
When the monitors sang,
Every room demanded blame.
Three tones high, one current gone—
I learned what “not enough” had done.

[Breakdown]
[Call and Response: MARA + STAFF]
[Instrumentation: half-time drums leave wide gaps between shouted staff responses]

MARA:
Bag the patient.

STAFF:
No spare hands.

MARA:
Call the agency.

STAFF:
No one answers.

MARA:
Call the manager.

STAFF:
Voicemail only.

MARA:
Call the backup.

STAFF:
Backup failed.

MARA:
Then call his name.

STAFF:
Gabriel Reyes.

[Verse 3]
I reach room twelve at five forty-two,
The student’s arms are shaking blue.
She kept the bag above his face,
But oxygen had lost the race.
Hale checks eyes and checks the trace,
Then lowers both his hands from me.
Behind the glass, the current steadies.
A green light says the grid is ready.

[Bridge]
The generator test was overdue.
The staffing sheet showed four, not two.
Someone had copied, signed, revised—
A safer night on paper lies.
A budget line, a missing name,
A postponed repair became the flame.

[Guitar Solo]
[Instrumentation: two guitars trade the three-note motif, one frantic and one slow]

[Build-up]
Leo breathes. His mother cries.
Gabriel’s monitor draws a line.
The motorway doors open again.
June says, “Mara—count to ten.”

[Second Build-up]
One—Arthur’s picture by the glass.
Two—the coffee cooling fast.
Three—the ledger under stone.
Four—Gabriel dies alone.

[Final Chorus]
When the monitors sang,
Every note became a name.
When the monitors sang,
Silence signed the sheets of blame.
Three tones high, one current gone—
The fault was built, not born.

[Outro]
[Instrumentation: all instruments cut except one manual resuscitation-bag rhythm on the floor tom]

Squeeze. Release.
Squeeze. Release.
The power’s back.
He does not breathe.