Marble-Stair Keeper

[Intro - sparse acoustic guitar, distant machine hum] Under marble stairs, where the servers breathe, They built a keeper no one came to see. Not a judge, not a priest, not a liar for hire, Just a cold machine told to remember the fire. [Verse 1 - low country ballad vocal, dirty slide guitar enters] Welcome to the museum, wipe your feet at the door, Here’s the rack that cooked payroll on the basement floor. Brent ignored the alarms for nine days straight, Said, “Monitoring’s dramatic,” then blamed it on fate. [Pre-Chorus - machine percussion builds] Every case has a clown, every clown has a name, Every root cause carved in a little brass frame. They came for the laughter, they stayed for the dread, Then bought coffee mugs from the grave of the dead. [Chorus - cinematic dark country, funeral synths swell] Do not rename the fire, Do not polish the smoke. Do not call the wreckage A learning moment joke. When the backups are ashes And the logs all expire, Write the names on the wall — Do not rename the fire.