[Whisper Verse, minor piano ostinato, hushed ensemble voices, sparse orchestral bed] I heard a thing at roll call barely a breath of sound another place to the east emptied without a round No names called on the platform no carts along the road just quiet tracks at morning and gates no longer closed [Whisper Verse, suspended chords, overlapping prisoners, distant choral texture] Someone said trains stopped running somewhere past the pines someone heard the guards speak about erased lines A man from the laundry muttered camps that simply ceased bunks left cold and numbered faces all released [Whisper Chorus, clustered harmony, layered murmured choir, trembling piano pulses] Did you hear it did you hear it something moving through the wire Places vanishing names unspoken fear becoming sharper, dire Pieces spoken softly passing bunk to bunk tonight [Whisper Verse, uneasy harmonic shift, breath-close voices, thin strings] They say a witness vanished after he tried to say what waits beyond the forest when transports fade away A guard once laughed at supper then stopped when we drew near someone said the endings are written somewhere here [Bridge, rising dissonant chords, overlapping ensemble murmurs, urgent breath rhythm] If the camps are fading line by line erased then every silent barrack waits to take their place Listen to the breathing count the living here every rumor gathering into something clear [Final Whisper, fragile piano motif return, single voice answered by distant choir] One voice barely saying what none of us would claim If the gates are closing before the morning came Perhaps the road beyond them is the only chance to live
