[Intro]
They carry me first through the courthouse door,
Then print me ten stories high above the floor.
He stands in my colors, rehearsed and composed.
The record stays written, however I’m posed.

[Verse 1]
I am cloth sewn red, sewn white, sewn blue,
Not pardon, not witness, not evidence new.
I covered coffins of workers and sons;
I flew over prisons and courthouse guns.
I hung above marches that widened the vote,
And ships that arrived with a name in each coat.
Do not make my fabric conceal what he did.
A banner is not where a verdict is hid.

[Chorus]
The felon and the flag in the same white light,
One bears a record; one is borrowed for night.
The felon and the flag, stitched image and man—
Cloth never pardoned him; people made the plan.
Do not blame the banner for the bargain we made.
A flag cannot save us when judgment is trade.

[Verse 2]
They wrap him in stripes at the rally gate,
As though cloth could revise his weight.
A veteran watches, both hands on a cane,
Remembering friends uninterested in fame.
He lowers his salute when the insults begin.
“No man is the country. No loss makes him king.”
The cameras avoid him and widen the frame,
But twenty around him are doing the same.

[Pre-Chorus]
A symbol can gather, console and remind.
It cannot replace an accountable mind.
A nation is conduct, not fabric unfurled.
No flag makes one ruler the measure of the world.

[Chorus]
The felon and the flag in the same white light,
One bears a record; one is borrowed for night.
The felon and the flag, stitched image and man—
Cloth never pardoned him; people made the plan.
Do not blame the banner for the bargain we made.
A flag cannot save us when judgment is trade.

[Guitar Solo: unresolved trumpet motif, rising electric guitar answer]

[Duet: Flag & Citizen]
[Flag]
Fold me with care, but open your eyes.
Love is not loyalty purchased by lies.
[Citizen]
Then I will carry no image as proof.
The law is the beam; the people the roof.

[Final Chorus]
The felon and the flag leave the same white light.
One keeps his record; one returns to common sight.
The felon and the flag were never one plan—
Cloth is symbol; man is accountable.
We own the bargain and choices made.
A country can change when judgment is not trade.

[Outro]
The veteran folds the colors into four.
Then walks with the others toward the studio door.
