[Verse 1] I kept the final evening in my memory, Edited by years into a documentary. Every little silence gained a vocabulary, Every small expression grew explanatory. Weeks became a method of recovery, Months became another kind of scenery. Your face began to soften in my memory, Your voice became a private piece of history. [Chorus] Residual, residual, Moving through the circuitry. Every year repeats another variation, Every room contains a small association. Residual, residual, Permanent familiarity. All this time has given it a territory, All this time has made it almost ordinary. [Verse 2] Certain conversations keep returning differently, Fragments recombining with embarrassing clarity. What I thought I meant becomes increasingly Difficult to recognise as generosity. People ask about you very occasionally. I produce the shortened version automatically. Years of explanation made it economical, Years of repetition made it mechanical. [Chorus] Residual, residual, Moving through the circuitry. Every year repeats another variation, Every room contains a small association. Residual, residual, Permanent familiarity. All this time has given it a territory, All this time has made it almost ordinary. [Middle Eight] There are whole periods I cannot reconstruct, Little discontinuities around the aftermath. Then a stray expression finds its way through suddenly, Complete with all the original intensity. A sentence I delivered with authority, A pause I misunderstood completely at the time, The exact expression crossing your anatomy, Stored somewhere beyond deliberate memory. [Verse 3] Regret became a feature of the architecture, Present in the spacing and the temperature. Daily life developed its own korreography, Carrying the weight without an audience. You became a person in another territory, Gradually detached from my mythology. I became the keeper of a private history, Writing little footnotes to the same apology. [Final Chorus] Residual, residual, Moving through the circuitry. Every year repeats another variation, Every room contains a small association. Residual, residual, Permanent familiarity. All this time has given it a territory, All this time has made it almost ordinary. [Outro] Somewhere in the body sits the memory, Wordless and exact in its machinery. Years continue adding to the chronology. Years continue carrying the apology.
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