NEVER LOSE A SINGLE ONE
Foreword A squirrel buries far more than it can ever remember, and the forgotten ones become trees. That is not a failure of the system — that is the system. The nuts it successfully retrieves get eaten and end there. Only the lost ones grow into anything. Set that against the human version, the drawer where everything is accounted for and nothing is misplaced and every single item in it is dead, and you have the thing I could not stop turning over. Perfect recall is a kind of sterility. Losing track is how anything gets out. Lyrics [Intro] Nine and ninety, all accounted. Ask me where I keep them all. Go on. Ask me. I can tell you. [Verse 1] Monday market, cardboard carton, Kittens crying, coins exchanging, Carried home in Tuesday's raincoat, Named the nine before the kettle. Bought a notebook, bought a bigger, Ruled the columns, ruled them neatly, Each one gets a ruled-off corner, Each one gets a given name. Wednesday whimpered, Wednesday wanted, Wednesday wet the woven basket, Wednesday wore me down to nothing — Thursday, I was very tired. [Pre-Chorus] Friday found the friendly doctor, Friendly doctor, folded paper, Room that smelled of lemon polish, Came home lighter. Bought a rabbit. [Chorus] Count them, count them, keep the tally, Collar, collar, name and number, Names in nine and ninety notebooks, Never lose a single one. Tidy hoard and tidy hallway, Tidy woman, tidy larder, Nothing sprawling, nothing spoiling, Never lose a single one. [Verse 2] Rabbit, ferret, twelve canaries, Something small that ate the ferret, Two more cats to fix the something, Then the something ate the cats. Some are hungry, some are itchy, Some are chewing through the skirting, Some are simply too much sweeping — Sweeping is the thing I hate. Girl behind the glass remembers, Writes my name before I ask it, Ninth one paid and tenth one free — That is how you keep a house. Doctor never asks me questions, Doctor writes and doctor nods and Doctor knows the make and model — Doctor keeps a book as well. [Pre-Chorus] Leash comes back without the collar, Collar goes into the drawer. Drawer is deep and drawer is tidy, Not a one of them forgotten. [Chorus] Count them, count them, keep the tally, Collar, collar, name and number, Names in nine and ninety notebooks, Never lose a single one. Tidy hoard and tidy hallway, Tidy woman, tidy larder, Nothing sprawling, nothing spoiling, Never lose a single one. [Bridge] Sleep arrived and sleep re-made me, Gave me claws and gave me hunger, Gave me weather in my whiskers, Gave me eight and ninety trees. [Verse 3] Bury, bury, all the morning, Under beech and under bracken, Thousand pockets in the country, Not a notebook to my name. Nobody to sweep the forest, Nobody to shut the cupboard, Rain and rot will do the sweeping, Nobody remembers where. Come the spring I cannot find them, Come the spring I do not want them, Come the spring the ground has kept them — Every one I lost stood up. [Post-Bridge] Woke with morning in the curtain, Woke with nothing in my arms, Counted collars, sixty-seven, Could not put them back to sleep. [Final Chorus] Lose them, lose them, lose the tally, Let the ledger lie in leafmould, Names that nobody remembers — Lose them. Lose them. Every one. Loose the hoard and loose the hallway, Loose the woman, loose the larder, Let it sprawl and let it spoil — Lose them. Lose them. Every one. [Outro] Drawer is open. Wind is moving. Sixty-seven buckles, ringing. Window open. Rain begins.
