What Did the Name Leave Out

[Intro | clean tenor | detuned piano] They gave it a name. What did the name leave out? [Verse 1 | guttural growl | jagged guitar accents] A beetle pinned beneath a label A coastline flattened on a chart The sentence makes the shaking orderly Then leaves the shaking where it starts They write “afraid” beside a number They write “recovered” on a form What happens to the part of living That never fits the chosen word? [Chorus | soaring tenor | sorrowful guitar harmony] Can a word contain a thing? Can a name hold all that changes? Something moves beneath the meaning Something never makes the pages [Verse 2 | low growl | shifting meter] Two mouths pronounce the word together Two different pictures rise inside They nod as though a bridge were finished And send their weight across the divide A dictionary on the table A trembling glass beside the bed How much can pass between two people? How much is only thought to have been said? [Chorus | exposed tenor | strings enter] Can a word contain a thing? Can a name hold all that changes? Something moves beneath the meaning Something never makes the pages [Extended instrumental | guitar bends between pitches] [Piano repeats a short figure | strings gradually pull away from it] [Bridge | alternating growl and tenor] They change the term. The thing remains. They change the thing. Who keeps the name? [Outro | clean tenor | instruments recede] They gave it a name. What did the name leave out? [Unresolved guitar harmonic]