READ IT BACK [Verse 1] The clerk taps the docket number twice. Manila folders lean in a cart of weeks that belong to strangers. A pitcher beads on the counsel desk. The gallery clears a throat. The bench is higher than it needs to be. A badge reel ticks against a belt. The jury rail is worn pale where palms have polished it. [Chorus] Read it back. The ink is dry. The caption is the caption. Read it back. [Verse 2] Carbon stains the clerk's cuff. A stenograph swallows the syllable and will not give one away. The bailiff minds the entrance and ignores the gallery. Exhibits rest in tagged bags like evidence should: sealed, ugly, done. A deposition brick thuds on the desk and dusts the blotter. [Chorus] Read it back. The ink is dry. The caption is the caption. Read it back. [Verse 3] Shit, the exhibit never made the vault to the desk. Damn the continuance that lapsed on a Friday nobody circled. A yellow pad fills with arrows that point at no useful target. The timepiece over the flag runs behind by design. HVAC drones. Nobody is comforted. [Chorus] Read it back. The ink is dry. The caption is the caption. Read it back. [Verse 4] God is on the oath card in type so small it looks ashamed. God is on the state seal flaking off cheap gold foil. Counsel rises. Counsel rests. The plea is brief and dressed as manners. A staple winks in the margin of a page that matters more than the speech. [Chorus] Read it back. The ink is dry. The caption is the caption. Read it back. [Bridge] Fuck the speech that feeling outranks ink. What got entered, got entered. Sidebar is a whisper with a price. Chambers will not save a sloppy detail. The gavel is a little hammer doing a large task. Theater is not a fact. A fact is what survived the stamp of a date-mark. [Chorus] Read it back. The ink is dry. The caption is the caption. Read it back. [Verse 5] The gallery empties after lunch. A paper cup rolls under the rail. The docket does not notice who left. Remand or release. The clerk remains when the lamps die tapping Tuesday's first call. The bench stays worn pale. The caption does not blink. [Final Chorus] Read it back. The ink is dry. The caption is the caption. Read it back. The ink is dry. Read it back.
