[Intro: solitary piano; close, sung] The paint was still wet. You could tell whose hands had held it. [Verse 1: low voice; bass gathering] I cut a NOT from cardboard. Paint ran down into my sleeve. You said, "Come empty-handed." I brought all I could believe. Standing water in the courtyard, benign taste of rain and rust. "I fixed your door," the foreman said. The exit still would not unlock. "Somebody has to move." We leaned until the hinges cried. For once the quiet order broke. For once the door stayed wide. [Pre-chorus: drums enter; melody lifts] Zero foot-pounds on the paperwork. Our weight had cracked the frame. They couldn't print the sound we made, so they printed us a name. [Chorus: wide guitars; enormous melodic group vocal] Antithesis to it all, we were beautiful together. Antithesis to it all, say the wall won't last forever. A no needs somewhere to go. A borrowed no can still be real. Who's still hungry on the other side? Who gets fed the mirror meal? [Verse 2: elastic breakbeat; piano within the groove] Now our NOT comes shrink-wrapped, paper bag and ribbon red. Clean Plate Club across the window; our old chant above the bread. The mistress's secret recipe has our splinters in the crust. My house voice calls it "Freedom." My second mouth says, "Trust." "Your usual?" asks the cashier. Tare the bag; the net weight stays. A web of thumbs above the counter lights our faces while we praise. Borrowed hunger in the queue. Unsubscribe and eat alone. Aftertaste beneath the sugar; force fed with a different spoon. [Pre-chorus: voices face each other; suspended harmony] You call me your antithesis. I call you mine again. We turn the map between us. Our north keeps changing hands. [Chorus: full band; a second vocal pulls against the lead] Antithesis to it all, we were beautiful together. Antithesis to it all, say the wall won't last forever. A no needs somewhere to go. A borrowed no can still be real. Who's still hungry on the other side? Who gets fed the mirror meal? [Bridge: close voice; exposed piano and low mechanical pulse] You came off the night shift shaking, asked for soup behind their glass. I said, "Spoiled," before I saw you count your coins and let them pass. "Leave me a little unknown." You didn't raise your head. Below rest, the motor trembled. I remembered what we'd said. Who holds the scale when you're that cold? Whose side can take you in? My soft teeth closed around a word. I couldn't make it sing. [Breakdown: heavy half-time; sung call and response] Yes is a hinge word. No is a hinge word. Listen to the wood give way. I walked inside to buy your soup. They scratched my name out of the song. You asked me if I'd sit with you. The line outside grew twice as long. [Final chorus: huge but fractured; the title turns on itself] Antithesis to it all, does that include this song? Antithesis to it all, you can keep my painted letters. A no needs somewhere to go. A borrowed no can still be real. I keep stirring what I bought you. You ask, "Is this a mirror meal?" [Outro: piano motif; group voice distant] I turn the cardboard over. The paint has soaked right through. Outside, they sing my hinge word. I pull a chair to you.
