[Intro] [Upright piano marks a slow funeral march while a metal desk stamp answers the frame drum.] [Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone] At the funeral home by the highway, White lines pull the living away. Chrome trucks groan and the streetlights wait, But every soul still has a weight. At the funeral home by the highway, Death clocks in at nine each day. [Verse 1 - Anubis, deep male baritone] Gray morning leans on the service road, Rain taps Morse code on the hearse below. I turn the key in the tempered glass, While fuel and freight and the mourners pass. The coffee is weak, the carpet is brown, A plastic saint keeps looking down. My name tag reads “Andrew,” neat and small; Three thousand years reduced to a call. [Pre-Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone] The telephone rings, the printer wakes, The ledger yawns and the stapler shakes. I smooth my cuffs, I seal my fate— Every soul still has a weight. [Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone] At the funeral home by the highway, White lines pull the living away. Chrome trucks groan and the streetlights wait, But every soul still has a weight. At the funeral home by the highway, Death clocks in at nine each day. [Verse 2 - Anubis, deep male baritone] I once kept watch where the black Nile bent, Where cedar smoke through the chambers went. Now Susan from Sales leaves forms on my chair: “Initial each box. Confirm the fare.” The lilies are molded, the candles use wire, The chapel flame is an LED fire. Still, when a family enters slow, I hear the old underground river flow. [Pre-Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone] A widow signs where the arrows point, A son asks softly what the casket costs. The prices rise, the voices break— Every soul still has a weight. [Instrumental Break] [Cello carries the descending three-note motif as passing trucks pulse beneath the frame drum.] [Bridge - Anubis, deep male baritone] No pyramid stands at Exit Nine, No priest pours oil, no stars align. Yet grief arrives without disguise, With unpaid bills and swollen eyes. So let the manager count his gold; I know the measure the dead still hold. [Buildup - Anubis, deep male baritone] I button the jacket, straighten the room, Open the curtains, prepare the gloom. The highway shudders beyond the gate— Every soul still has a weight. [Final Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone] At the funeral home by the highway, Where no god’s name appears on the doorway, I guard the hush while the streetlights wait, For every soul still has a weight. Let the trucks run late, let the invoices wait— I keep the threshold, guarding the gate. [Outro - Anubis, deep male baritone] The OPEN sign flickers against the rain. The telephone rings. I answer again.