YOU REMEMBERED THE SKULL [Spoken Intro] [a cappella, soft bass vocal pulse, finger snaps] Aisle six. Seasonal. Left of the fake blood. Right of the pumpkins. Orange everywhere like it means something. Mug. Shirt. Mask. Lights. Plastic marigolds packed up tight. Whole altar on a peg hook. Twenty-nine ninety-nine. Heh. No. No name on the back. Just a barcode and a smile. [vocal pulse stops] Cool skull. Who’d you lose? [Verse 1] [measured battle cadence, crisp enunciation, sparse vocal percussion] Pretty little altar but no body’s home, painted-bone grin with no name of its own. Flowers on the table ’cause the colors look right, candle in the middle for the camera tonight. Where’s the picture? (Skull on a tee.) Where’s the person? (Limited release.) Where’s the name? (Logo in place.) Where’s the memory? (Makeup on a face.) Who gets the water? (Candy and Coke.) Who gets the bread? (Fun-size joke.) Where’s the candle? (Plastic pumpkin glow.) Where are the petals? (Printed for the show.) Little ghosts hit every house, little goblins score some more. The ghosts found all the candy. The dead couldn’t find the door. [vocal percussion thins] That’s the part you missed. Kept the skull. Kept the glow. Kept the orange. Kept the show. Kept the costume. Kept the store. But the dead couldn’t find the door. [Chorus] [stacked a cappella harmony, lead remains clear] Who are you remembering? (Who?) Whose face is on the table? (Whose?) Who are you remembering? (Say the name.) You bought the flowers. You bought the bones. WHO ARE YOU REMEMBERING? [Verse 2] [tighter cadence, vocal percussion grows heavier] Now follow the receipt. Trademark the phrase, license the grief, package remembrance, put mourning on a sleeve. Bones on a sneaker, dead on a cup, scratch a skull for a jackpot, mark the leftovers up. Seasonal launch. Limited run. Corporate tribute. Holiday fun. SKU after SKU— product code too. Funny what memory turns into for you. Turn an altar to branding, turn a prayer into stock, turn the dead into graphics, then punch out the clock. November second— everybody profound. November third— [all voices stop] Clearance markdown. [bass voices return] Same skull. Half price. Memory on clearance. Recuerdo half price. [Bridge] [sparse stacked harmony, angry amusement] Heh. Now this part is perfect. Posada drew bones in a borrowed-hat fantasy. French brim, ostrich trim, whole thing was vanity. Status on a skeleton, mocking the pretending— then we sold the damn warning as seasonal spending. The satire got merch. The punchline got trendy. La Catrina hit the mall looking sweet as candy— and nobody caught the warning. They just called her fancy. Heh. Perfect. [Verse 3] [controlled cadence, bass vocal pulse grows stronger] I’m not mad that you found it. I just wanna know what you found around it. Did you ask Grandma who was framed in the hall? Did she say his name? Did you listen at all? Did she tell you the story, how he drank, how he laughed? Did you learn who he was, not just stare at the photograph? Good. Then the picture had meaning. Then the memory stayed. Then somebody came home when somebody’s name got said. I don’t care where you’re from. I care who you came for. Who gets called to the table? Who gets welcomed through the door? Don’t show me the skull. Show the face in the frame. Don’t show me the flowers. Tell me somebody’s name. Tell me what they drank. Tell me why they would laugh. Tell me what you still miss when you look at the photograph. Tell me what you remember. Tell me why it still stings. Tell me who they were— Tell me ANYTHING. [rapid battle cadence, vocal percussion locks tight] Everybody’s got the palette, everybody’s got the pose, everybody knows the makeup, nobody knows the ghosts. Bought it, wore it, filmed it, sold it, tagged it, branded, bagged and rolled it, boxed it, stocked it, launched, promoted— meaning stripped and image loaded. Skull on the sneaker, skull on the sleeve, skull on the coffee cup— WHO ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GRIEVE? Skull in the window, skull at the door, skull on EVERYTHING— WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS FOR?! [all voices stop] Cool skull. Who’d you lose? [silence] Where is the person? Where is the picture? WHERE IS THE DAMN NAME?! [low bass vocal hit] [Final Chorus] [slow stacked harmony, exhausted lead] You remembered the skull. You remembered the flowers. You remembered the colors. You remembered the sale. You remembered the post. You remembered the pose. You remembered exactly how the whole thing looks. You remembered everything— [all harmony cuts] BUT THEM. [Outro] [soft humming chord] Cool skull. Who’d you lose? [voices cut]
