[Intro]
Check the wristband. Enter the line.
Leave every doubtful word behind.
Raise the cap when the anthem starts.
Keep the rhythm. Guard your heart.

[Verse 1]
We know the sequence, know the cue,
The name he calls, the phrase we do.
He lifts one finger; thousands point.
The cameras find the loudest joint.
A vendor sells the printed rage,
A preacher blesses center stage.
No platform changes, no questions land;
We came to move at one command.

[Chorus]
The rally becomes a ritual,
The slogan becomes the script.
The hand on the heart turns habitual;
The truth from the tongue is stripped.
We came as a crowd; we leave as a sign.
The rally becomes a ritual—one body, one line.

[Verse 2]
A woman falters near the rail,
Her handmade question small and pale.
The people nearest turn as one,
Before the guards have even come.
No order spoken, no bell rung;
The movement lives in every tongue.
Her paper tears beneath their feet.
The chant resumes, precise and sweet.

[Pre-Chorus]
First we repeated what made us strong.
Then strength meant never naming wrong.
First we defended what we had heard.
Then doubt itself became the forbidden word.

[Chorus]
The rally becomes a ritual,
The slogan becomes the script.
The hand on the heart turns habitual;
The truth from the tongue is stripped.
We came as a crowd; we leave as a sign.
The rally becomes a ritual—one body, one line.

[Drum Break: floor tom chant cadence, snare erasing twelve-beat swing]

[Bridge]
I try my own name inside my mouth.
It sounds like someone traveling south.
I try my neighbor’s, try my son’s;
The chant rolls on and buries each one.

[Choir]
Say it again.
Say it on time.
Say it together.
Make it a sign.

[Final Chorus]
The rally became a ritual,
The slogan consumed the script.
The hand on the heart turned habitual;
The self from the body was stripped.
We came as a crowd; they numbered the line.
The rally became a ritual—and called obedience mine.

[Outro]
The speaker keeps shouting to rows of empty chairs.
Outside, people practice saying their names in pairs.