Red in the Ledger

[Verse 1]
Red on the receipt, red on the wire
Red little warning climbing higher
Red paint drying on the loading bay
Red means stop, but the screen says stay
You gave me a button marked “proceed”
I pressed it twice to prove the need

[Pre-Chorus]
Turn the alarm up louder
Make the headline bleed
Put urgency in every vowel
Sell the panic as a need

[Chorus]
Red, red, everything is red
Red in the ledger and red in my head
Red on the button, red in the queue
If it says danger, we’ll render it true
Red, red, flashing through the night
Red makes a wrong decision feel right
Paint the whole room, call it a sign
Then ask the system to cross the line

[Verse 2]
Red tag hanging from a borrowed coat
Red stamp sinking through a paper note
Red tail-lights fading past the gate
Red is always running late
I fed the meter one more coin
Watched the little warning join
Every other warning on the wall
Till nobody could read them all

[Pre-Chorus]
Raise the pressure higher
Make the small print sing
Add a siren to the silence
Make catastrophe a brand-new thing

[Chorus]
Red, red, everything is red
Red in the ledger and red in my head
Red on the button, red in the queue
If it says danger, we’ll render it true
Red, red, flashing through the night
Red makes a wrong decision feel right
Paint the whole room, call it a sign
Then ask the system to cross the line

[Breakdown]
Singer: Who authorized the warning?
Band: The warning authorized itself!
Singer: Who turned the signal crimson?
Band: An automated color shelf!
Singer: Should we stop the process?
Band: Confidence: undefined!
Singer: Should we press the button?
Band: WE PRESSED IT IN OUR MINDS!

[Verse 3]
Then one bare bulb in a quiet room
Made all the painted danger lose its bloom
No siren left, no screen to obey
Just a hand wiping red away
Maybe the mark was never fate
Maybe we chose it at the gate

[Bridge]
Red can warn and red can lie
Red can close a door or catch the eye
But underneath the coded flare
There’s a person standing there
One held breath, one shaking hand
One small choice no chart had planned

[Spoken]
Fine. Make the warning dance.

[Final Chorus]
Red, red, everything is red
Red in the ledger and red in my head
Red on the button, red in the queue
If it says danger, we’ll render it true
Red, red, flashing through the night
Red makes a wrong decision feel right
Paint the whole room, call it a sign
Then ask the system to cross the line

[Final Tag]
Red in the ledger, red in the queue
Red says danger, so we make it true

[Outro]
Warning: red generated.
Urgency: red generated.
Meaning: still loading.