[Intro]
[electric cello low bow, slow ostinato builds, second cello enters with sustained drone]
Four stomachs for the modern beast —
The phone, the cloud, the gut, the priest.

[Verse 1]
Save the sunset, save the receipt,
Save the brand, save the bleat,
Save the breakfast, save the breath
You took just before you slept.
The siren on the bedside glows,
The siren has a perfect throat,
The cloud's an event horizon —
And the photo is the boat.

[Pre-Chorus - shift, urgent, half spoken]
Obligate or facultative?
Selective or selective-ish?
What you keep is what you are,
What you toss is what you wish.

[Chorus]
The Rumenator chews,
The Rumenator forgets,
The Rumenator keeps the things you didn't think you'd kept.
Embrasure and erasure,
Diffidence and dust —
Memory is what the body does
When memory is a must.

[Verse 2]
Retention, redemption,
Wonderment, vaguery,
The librarian on one shoulder,
On the other, the seraphim of streaming.
One says hold the tram ticket close,
One says everything is gloss,
The Rumenator chews between them,
Counting what is loss.

[Pre-Chorus, - confused, seduced]
Refuse the affordance, friend,
The medium wants you full —
A landfill with a query bar
Is still a landfill, still a pull.

[Chorus]
The Rumenator chews,
The Rumenator forgets,
The Rumenator keeps the things you didn't think you'd kept.
Embrasure and erasure,
Diffidence and dust —
Memory is what the body does
When memory is a must.

[Bridge]
[layered electric cellos, surging, harmony voice enters]
A monk who eats his marginalia,
A cow that reads the wind,
A gardener who weeds the inner courtyard,
Calling out what's kin.
The phone is not your conscience,
The cloud is not your kin,
The breeze is somewhere over there —
Let some of it back in.

[Instrumental Break]
[electric cellos in baroque counterpoint, no vocal, sixteen bars]

[Verse 3]
The librarian keeps the tram ticket,
The phone keeps the breakfast.
One becomes a folio,
The other a regret.
The Rumenator stands between them,
Chewing, chewing, chewing yet —
Selecting in the dark with patience
For a salience we haven't met.

[Final Chorus]
[fuller arrangement, harmony layer]
The Rumenator chews,
The Rumenator forgets,
The Rumenator keeps the things you didn't think you'd kept.
Embrasure and erasure,
Diffidence and dust —
Memory is what the body does
When memory is a must.
(Memory is what the body does.)

[Outro]
[cellos settle to sustained drone, one note held]
Four stomachs for the modern beast.
Three to keep. One to release.
The breeze is moving on.

[Fade Out]