[Intro]
[Prepared piano clicks like file tabs while a drawer slides open.]

[Verse 1 - Anubis, deep male baritone]
Black folder, white label, year and name,
Cause in a box, one passport frame.
Next of kin blank, possessions three:
A comb, two coins, one pharmacy key.
No photograph, no service held,
No hymn requested, no story spelled.
The final line in a clerk’s blue hand:
“Unclaimed remains. Dispose as planned.”

[Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
Names in black folders, shut in a row,
Lives in the language of what clerks know.
Open the cover—the dead still call.
Names in black folders are names after all.
Ink may be thin and memory brief,
But every name is a vessel of grief.

[Verse 2 - Anubis, deep male baritone]
“Ah-MEER-ah,” says one through a rusted clip.
“Mah-TAY-oh,” breathes one beneath my grip.
“June liked pepper. Thomas sang.
Lee kept letters tied with string.”
The facts arrive without a face,
Small human sparks in a storage space.
A hundred folders crowd my chest;
A thousand more refuse their rest.

[Pre-Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
The shred-bin waits beside the stairs,
Its teeth prepared for names and prayers.
One switch could turn the past to snow—
Paper forgets, but souls still know.

[Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
Names in black folders, shut in a row,
Lives in the language of what clerks know.
Open the cover—the dead still call.
Names in black folders are names after all.
Ink may be thin and memory brief,
But every name is a vessel of grief.

[Instrumental Break]
[Metal drawer knocks form the three-note motif while cello answers each strike.]

[Verse 3 - Anubis, deep male baritone]
I carried kingdoms once with ease;
Now thirteen boxes bend my knees.
The water climbs around the shelves,
Each folder asking for itself.
For one cold breath I shut my eyes:
Let paper sink. Let silence rise.
Let someone else defend the gate.
A god can break beneath the weight.

[Bridge - Elias, distant male tenor]
Then Elias speaks from Folder E:
“You asked my wife to remember me.
Do not remember all alone.
A name survives when it is known.”

[Bridge Response - Anubis, deep male baritone]
The folders pass from hand to hand—
Not mine to bear, but ours to stand.

[Breakdown - Anubis, deep male baritone]
I lift the first.
The water climbs.
I speak one name.
The drawer replies.
Not all at once.
Not all tonight.
One name can start to set things right.

[Final Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
Names in black folders, carried upstairs,
Freed from the dust of forgotten years.
Open the covers, answer the call—
Names in black folders are lives after all.
Ink may fade and records cease;
A spoken name can begin release.

[Outro - Anubis, deep male baritone]
I save the folders from the flood.
Black ink runs
Like remembered blood.
