[Intro: Slow downtuned guitar, single sustained chord, drums entering at half the expected speed. Solo harp answers in the gaps — clean, plucked, unaccompanied.] [Verse 1: Single low male voice, plain and unhurried, no vibrato. Guitar and bass trudging beneath, harp answering each line.] I dig them six foot down, Same length, same width, same care, No man goes in a pit, Not while I'm standing there, I take my time with it, Then I lay the shovel down. [Pre-Refrain: Voice steady, harp rising underneath, no change in tempo] Nine hundred and forty souls, I know them all by name, Nine hundred and forty holes, And not one dug the same. [Refrain: Full doom weight, low male voice doubled, harp cutting through] Count the dead, Count the patterns in your head, Number graves, Number every one you've made — One more. [Dream 1: Guitars drop out entirely. Harp alone, then sacred harp choir entering in open fourths and fifths, voices staggered. Lead voice small underneath the choir.] She comes when I'm asleep, She doesn't tell me much, She says I'll dig fewer graves Than the day before. [Verse 2: Same plain delivery, heavier guitar, drums fuller, harp more insistent] They bring them by the cart, I take them one by one, The parson says a word, Or I say one when he's gone, I give them what they're owed, Then I go back to the start. [Pre-Refrain: Voice steady, harp rising, choir absent] Eleven hundred and six souls, I know them all by name, Eleven hundred and six holes, And not one dug the same. [Refrain: Full doom weight, doubled vocal, harp cutting through] Count the dead, Count the patterns in your head, Number graves, Number every one you've made — One more. [Dream 2: Guitars out. Harp alone, choir entering fuller than before, more voices, longer stagger.] She comes when I'm asleep, She doesn't tell me much, She says I'll dig fewer graves Than the day before. [Instrumental: Guitar and bass at their heaviest and slowest, grinding through a single figure. Harp plays against it in a faster meter, entirely unbothered by the weight underneath. The two never resolve into each other.] [Verse 3: Same plain delivery, arrangement thinning, drums sparser, more silence between lines] The cart came once this week, The ground's near froze again, I finished before noon, And I stood there in the wind, There was nothing left to do, So I laid the shovel down. [Pre-Refrain: Voice steady, harp bright and clear, choir humming faintly beneath for the first time while awake] Eleven hundred and nine souls, I know them all by name, Eleven hundred and nine holes, And not one dug the same. [Final Refrain: Largest arrangement, sacred harp choir at full weight behind the lead voice, harp ringing over everything] Count the dead, Count the patterns in your head, Number graves, Number every one you've made — One less than yesterday. [Dream 3: Everything stops. Harp alone, playing the melody the choir sang. No voices. Long, unhurried, allowed to decay completely.] [Outro: Single sustained guitar chord fading. Spoken plainly, close to the microphone, without emotion.] She didn't come tonight. And the cemetery has symmetry,
