[Intro]
Two-twelve in the morning, and nothing's fine —
The coffee machine reads OUT OF SERVICE, right on time.
The night desk runs on empty too.

[Verse]
[Maya] Two-seventeen — my phone still lies.
Three drafts of one headline, and I've run dry.
A producer sleeps against the wall.
The sports desk waits on noodles — no delivery at all.

[Frank] I started back when overnight meant something true.
Now a quiet Tuesday needs the word "breaking," too.
We lost two editors. They called it "streamlined flow."
Then bought a screen to show us where good people go.

[Chorus]
Coffee is not a staffing plan,
A mug can't do the work of another human hand.
You can brew it dark, you can brew it strong,
It can't make an eighteen-hour rota right.
Coffee is not a staffing plan,
And caffeine can't cover every empty chair tonight.

[Verse]
[Maya] The printer died at half past one —
Nobody swore. We're long past that. We're numb.
A junior editor's worked since yesterday.
He asks what day it is. I can't say.

[Frank] They call it "always on." They call it "meeting need."
Funny how the audience sleeps while we still feed
The feed. One more alert. One more dashboard in the hall.
No metric counts the sentence a tired mind lets fall.

[Chorus]
Coffee is not a staffing plan,
A mug can't check a quote or call a councillor again.
You can brew it dark, you can brew it strong,
It can't make exhausted judgement right.
Coffee is not a staffing plan,
And caffeine isn't hiring for the empty desks tonight.

[Clean Guitar Solo]

[Bridge]
[Maya] "Why stay?"
[Frank] "Because someone calls us when nobody else will listen —
Because that baker deserved his correction.
Which is exactly why this version of it has to end."

[Breakdown]
One chair empty. Two desks merged. Three shifts covered. Four mistakes deferred.
Five cups. No sleep.
No clever slogan makes it cheap.

[Build-up]
Dawn comes grey. The newsroom looks smaller than yesterday.
I close the analytics tab. Frank kills the red banner preview.
For seven quiet seconds,
Nothing in the building is urgent.

[Final Chorus]
Coffee is not a staffing plan,
A mug can't hold a newsroom when the schedule barely can.
You can brew it dark, you can brew it strong,
It can't make good judgement come tonight.
Coffee is not a staffing plan —
Caring for the work means saying: this isn't right.

[Outro]
[Frank] "It would help if somebody fixed this."
He lifts the empty pot. Six-oh-three: facilities arrives. Four minutes, and it runs hot.
The newsroom claps — more sincerely than the last town hall.
I pour two cups. [Frank] "Now decide what deserves the front page."