There’s a woman in the hallway playing Godfather its power and control With a ledger in her hand She’s counting up the family Like numbers in the sand She’s got a file for every feeling A folder for every crime A little medical story For every inconvenient line She says, “Don’t look behind the curtain” She says, “Everything is fine” Then quietly moves the furniture And rearranges time She takes a name from one document And puts it somewhere new Then tells the room a different story Until somebody believes it too Oh, the madness has paperwork The madness has a file The madness wears a Sunday dress And smiles at you awhile There’s a ghost inside the paperwork A puppet in the pen Somebody keeps rewriting What happened way back when** There’s an old man at the table With a pen between his fingers Someone tells him where to sign While yesterday still lingers The numbers dance like little ghosts Across the accountant’s page A daughter asks a simple question And suddenly she’s dangerous A mother calls the police And the whole thing gets absurd There’s a courtroom in the morning And a thousand missing words Oh, the madness has paperwork The madness has a file The madness wears a Sunday dress And smiles at you awhile There’s a ghost inside the paperwork A puppet in the pen Somebody keeps rewriting What happened way back when** The banker says, “It’s numbers.” The lawyer says, “It’s law.” The doctor says, “I never said that.” The paperwork says more The police say, “We are finished.” The courtroom says, “Explain.” The family says, “You’re crazy.” The daughter says, “Again?” And somewhere in the kitchen The television screams While an old man asks a question From the ruins of his dreams Who owns the story? Who owns the name? Who holds the pen? Who changed the game? Who moved the numbers? Who closed the door? Who said, “Nothing happened”? Then happened something more.** Maybe nobody did it. Maybe everybody did. Maybe the truth was sleeping In the room where nobody lived. There’s a queen without a kingdom Still polishing her crown A castle made of paperwork And every wall is coming down She has a thousand explanations And every one is new Yesterday she knew the answer Today she never knew She says the daughter is the problem The daughter says, “Look here.” She lays the papers on the table And suddenly it’s very clear Not because the story vanished Not because the ghosts were gone But because the paper finally Started talking back. Oh, the madness has paperwork The madness has a file The madness built a kingdom And called the kingdom “smile” There’s a ghost inside the paperwork But ghosts don't lie forever You can lock away the documents But you can't lock them together Oh, the madness has paperwork The circus has a name The puppets lost their strings tonight And nothing stays the same The pen is on the table The ledger's finally still And the strangest thing of all is Nobody knows who holds the pen. The room goes quiet. The clock keeps ticking. The television keeps talking. The old man looks up. For one second— he remembers. The daughter. The name. The face. The door. Then the light goes out. And somewhere in the darkness. the paperwork starts laughing.
