Hey, inspector learn some words wrote in red

You pull up

Hard hat

Shiny truck

Clipboard ready

Like you’re out of luck

You say you’re here to help keep us safe but you’re a clown

Funny how that speech ends with “shut it down”

You say the law is black and white

But you twist it ‘round inside your head

You mark our future with your pen

Then you smile and shake our hands instead

You’d fit right in at the circus

Friend

You sure would make a real good clown

You said

If you read past all your fine print

You might see those words wrote in red

You walk the seam like you own the coal

Countin’ every citation

Every bolt and every hole

You quote the code like a Sunday prayer

But you don’t hear families hangin’ in the air

You say the law is black and white

But you twist it ‘round inside your head

You mark our future with your pen

Then you smile and shake our hands instead

You’d fit right in at the circus

Friend

You sure would make a real good clown

You said

If you read past all your fine print

You might see those words wrote in red

Those red words talk about a man died for us

He told us to work for our bread

Roof overhead

But You call your job “compliance

” we call it a power trip

You shut that gate

We got nowhere to go (nowhere to go)

You say the law is black and white

But you twist it ‘round inside your head

You mark our future with your pen

Then you smile and shake our hands instead

You’d fit right in at the circus

Friend

Painted shoes and a painted grin instead

But there’s ink you can’t wash off your hands

All those lives in words wrote in red