This Much Counts as One · Track 5 · middle
Pouce
Pouce — French inch, ~2.7 cm — literally 'thumb'. Volume: I. BODY. ANGLE: A thumb, laid down as law. The tenderness of measuring anything by the part of you that grips. Sing the person or animal inside the unit, never the definition.
No audio yet — generation pending.
Lyrics
I watch you press it to the pine A fleshy anchor for the line You push until the pad turns white To get the heavy timber right Before the ruler made of brass We used the bodies that we had A joint of bone, a crescent nail To build the ship and weave a sail We measure the world with the part that grips The heavy hand and the fingertips You lay down the law with the very same bone You use to pull me close when the work is done It’s a fragile thing to trust But we build the house from the things we clutch They took a long-dead ruler's hand And locked the distance in a vault So every table in the realm Would share a single, perfect fault But metal doesn't have a pulse Or yield against the cedar grain It only has a cold demand That doesn't soften in the rain We measure the world with the part that grips The heavy hand and the fingertips You lay down the law with the very same bone You use to pull me close when the work is done It’s a fragile thing to trust But we build the house from the things we clutch You don’t even look when you make the score Your muscle remembers the width of the door The skin is calloused, the joint has a hitch You know the distance without the stick The blood rushes pink when you lift it away Just a smudge of graphite left to stay The iron rule is cold and grand But the house was made by a living hand Press it down And hold...