Subtracted all the numbers today
Found forty-five and fifty times the day
Mark the spot were one two three used to be
And all the numbers fall down the spine to the floor
And form the puddle fractions of lies that will equal a whole

Watched everything fall through my fingers like cold ocean sand
Watched the glass to the old windows crack break and fall
And empty frames remain to remind us of what used to be there
Windows to look upon out and up
Lets fly as high as the grass grows up

Added numbers twenty-four to the date of ninety
Two-thousand and a fourth of what we could’ve been
Mark the spot
Put a dot
Ninety two thousand and all over again
This pointless addition game built just to subtract

All the trees lost their leaves
But then they come back all green and abundant
And the grass is there to give comfort to our feet
But we ignore that most of the time and squish it beneath our shoe clad feet
Now they make rules “wear shoes” they say
What they mean is “don’t accept the gift the grass gives you as much as you can, you can only hurt it that way.”

Twice the exponent cries
Don’t dare forget to multiply it or you’ll get a new mark
A nice smooth red line screaming “that number is WRONG!”
So you tried to add twenty-nine and thirty got twice to the day
Nineteen times would’ve done it plenty
Eight and then six forty-five and next twenty
But don’t forget blessed fourteen

Hold your head high so they can determine your face and your place
Distinguished members of their falling grace
Lets all wind up like scissors and paper
Always cutting each other down
Little pieces now, don’t forget to fall on your way down
Hold your pride so they can see it and take it
Make sure you can’t get back your heart when they’ve destroyed it
It’ll save them the extra work

After you subtract all our hearts
And multiply our hurts
We’ll tell them all “I’m all right” so they can do it again
Because we don’t all sleep as sound as you