The Chemistry of Almost

Lyrics

[Intro]
(two people breathing, not quite yet)
Philematology. The study of kissing. It is a real field with real journals.

[Verse 1]
Two-thirds of people tilt their head to the right, and nobody teaches that,
and babies do it in the womb, turning the same way, before any of this,
which suggests it isn't learned, which suggests it is older than us,
and the researchers write this up in careful, unromantic prose
in a paper with a methodology section and a sample size,
and it remains, despite them, the most romantic finding I know.

[Chorus]
The chemistry of almost. The half-second before.
The tilt, the pause, the breath, the decision that isn't spoken —
and a hundred and forty-six muscles doing something in your face
that no one in this field has fully accounted for yet.
The chemistry of almost. They measured it. Of course they did.
Somebody studies this. Somebody got funding for this.

[Verse 2]
Not every culture does it. That's the part that unsettles people.
It's not universal, it's not instinct, it's maybe half of societies,
and in some places it is only for mothers and infants
and to do it as adults would be strange, or rude, or simply not a thing.
So this most natural act on earth is a regional custom.
It could have gone another way. It nearly did.

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
And what they think it's FOR is the least romantic thing of all:
a chemical interview. Immune compatibility, sampled at close range,
a rapid assessment conducted by two people who believe
they are having a moment, and are, and are also running diagnostics.
Both things are true at once and neither cancels the other.
You can know all of that and still forget it entirely at the time.

[Chorus]

[Outro]
(the pause ends)
To the right.
Almost everybody goes right.