Scan Me Once

Lyrics

I am a silver pillow.
Room temperature.
Smell of cut kale and plastic laminate.
San Francisco, 9:42 a.m.
Waiting for the door to close.

Doug Evans had a vision.
A four-ton press inside a perfect white box.
Three hundred and ninety-nine dollars for the ceremony.
To exert a force I never needed.
To validate the numbers on my skin.
This little square of black and white noise.
My only face.

Scan me once.
The red light washes over.
A sharp click. My soul is in your logs.
Scan me once.
And the countdown is forever.
One entry in a database that says I lived.
And now I'm yours to crush.

Ellen Huet, she knew.
April 19, 2017.
She didn't need the press.
She just used her hands.
Two hands, and the juice came out.
But the machine, it reads the date I'm printed with.
And it would have called me dead anyway.
An electronic ghost.

Scan me once.
The red light washes over.
A sharp click. My soul is in your logs.
Scan me once.
And the countdown is forever.
One entry in a database that says I lived.
And now I'm yours to crush.

The slow, wet compression.
The sound of pulp and foil giving up.
There is no second time.
There is no refill.
My QR code is a tombstone.
A serial number in a database that will outlive us all.
A key used once to lock its own door.

A wet husk.
Aluminum and fiber.
Logged.
Spent.