The numbers keep running Somewhere I can't follow To redacted transcripts And data-rich shadows Oh, I can feel the hands on me They labor with loving efficiency To carve away pounds of my flesh As they comfort me: "This is how it's supposed to be" The sources in conflict Revised and provisional The havens offshore The funding's untraceable But someone's getting paid And everyone's got a theory Oh, I can feel the hands on me Pointing me towards the ones I should hate Don't tell'em the maths got minds of their own They want backs to walls And blame always finds a home This isn't what they promised me Their tide won't lift me back to my feet Nickels and dimes weighing me down And plenty of ocean for me to breathe Ten thousand lashes for our sins Don't know what I've lost but I feel it missing Each voice for itself in this chorus of fools The future's a coda, we're singing the blues And stealing our notes from the bank of dreams Whose vaults echo deaf as the tune runs astray Our number's up We all gotta pay