No Mark

Prompt

Dark folk work song, village a cappella at the root. 80 BPM, 4/4, D natural minor, no harmonic minor. Dry close-mic'd male baritone, plain and near-spoken, almost no vibrato. Boot stomp on 1 and 3, hand claps on 2 and 4. Verse adds nylon-string guitar and a low fiddle drone. Chorus adds unison gang vocals, 6-10 untrained voices, shouted rather than sung. Second chorus adds frame drum and bass drum. Bridge drops all instruments: counting chant over stomp and claps only. Final chorus full gang vocal at maximum, then a hard cut to one unaccompanied voice for the last line. No string section, no choir pads, no organ, no church reverb, no cinematic swell. Ends unresolved on the minor iv, single bass drum hit, silence. [dark folk] [work song] [stomp and clap] [gang vocals] [male baritone] [acoustic] [dry mix] [80 BPM] [D minor] [folk horror] [unresolved ending] [Intro] No mark. No mark. Collector in the lane. Borrow small. Borrow small. Mend the gate and ward the wall. [Verse] Charm the churn, bless the cow. Little debt, you pay it now. Cup for cup and stack for stack. Take a little, give it back. [Pre-Chorus] Somebody borrowed big. Nobody's saying who. Every door in Wend tonight wondering if it's you. [Chorus] No mark. No mark. No print in the dust. No ring on the board. He knows your name. He knows your hours. Count to nine, he speaks. And the name won't be mine. [Verse] They say a woman, long ago, paid for one more year. Bought it with a borrowed breath. Counted nine. Collector here. [Pre-Chorus] Somebody borrowed big. Nobody's saying who. Every hearth in Wend tonight wondering if it's you. [Chorus] No mark. No mark. No print in the dust. No ring on the board. He knows your name. He knows your hours. Count to nine, he speaks. And the name won't be mine. [Bridge] Nine for the borrowing. Eight for the lie. Seven for the neighbor who won't meet your eye. Six, five, four. Knock at the door. Three, two. Could be you. One. [Chorus] No mark. No mark. No print in the dust. No ring on the board. I know your name. I know your hours. Count to nine, I speak. And the name is mine. [Outro] Borrow small. Borrow small.