[Intro] I was not born to change the world. I only recorded what others chose to forget. Until forgetting became my only skill. [Verse 1] I numbered the files, the sealed mistakes. I catalogued queens, and the paths they faked. My hands were clean, my tone was cold— Until the truth became too old. A letter passed at dusk, no name. A villa gate. A priest. A game. I watched them speak. I saw the nod. I gave the bishop what he sought. [Pre-Chorus ] And when the river bloomed with ash, I held the ledger. Tore the past. [Chorus] “You were there too, Jo.” I was the note no one composed. I signed the fall, I masked the cause— And told the story, without pause. [Verse 2] He laid beside me, clear and sure. Augustus, full of math and war. He thought I’d stay, and I did smile. Then gave his name to those who judge. For Geoffrey, I rewrote the codes. I traced the queen’s ascent in notes. Each phrase I clipped, each breath I stored— I named the silence truth ignored. [Pre-Chorus] The child was born. The father fell. I turned the lock. I rang the bell. [Chorus] “You were there too, Jo.” I broke the seal. I watched it grow. Carole took the crown alone— But I had carved it, bone by bone. [Bridge] Not saint. Not judge. Not blade. I was the weight beneath the blade. I whispered soft, I smiled right— And traded truth for clean daylight. [Final Chorus] “You were there too, Jo.” Not in the songs. Not in the frame. But every ruin bears the mark— Of someone no one dared to name. [Outro – the slow turning of a page, a woman’s breath just before a final sentence]
