November First

Lyrics

[Intro]
(morning birds, a trash bag, someone sweeping)
And then it's just a Tuesday.

[Verse 1]
The lawyer is a person with a job and a commute.
The officer's an aide who works the overnight at the institute.
The nurse is in accounting. The pirate teaches math.
The devil's advocate is somebody's mother and that's that.
The lampshade's in a dumpster and the drawer came off the frame,
and the wire from the headpiece is the only thing that stayed.

[Chorus]
November first. November first.
Everybody's back to being who they were.
The costume's in a bag and the bag is by the door,
and nobody's a monster anymore.
November first. Put the ears back in the drawer.
Same time next year. Same drawer.

[Verse 2]
Six weeks on a concept and it lasted about four hours,
and she'd tell you it was worth it and she'd tell you that with force,
because the making was the thing — the glue burn and the plan,
the bin marked DO NOT TOUCH, the wire, the working of the hands.
Nobody makes a thing that lasts one night by accident.
That's a choice. That's the whole point. That's what temporary meant.

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
And here's the part that gets me every single time:
that we do it all again. We do it all again next time.
Knowing it's four hours. Knowing it's a bag.
Knowing that the drawer is where the ears are going back.
That's not sad. I promise you, that's not the sad part.
The sad part would be never having built the thing at all.

[Chorus]

[Outro]
(sweeping stops, a door closes gently)
Same time next year.
Same drawer.
Go to work.