Number by Heart

(number by heart)
(ring, ring)

Kitchen light humming in a cold flat
Kitchen light humming in a cold flat
Rain on the window like a hand on a mat
Hallway smells of someone else's rice
I pick up the phone and my fingers know twice
Six digits learned on a school-day floor
Back when the cord was a leash on the door
Your voice on the other side of the wire
Saying eat first, tell me later, then higher
I'd sit on the stairs with the plastic receiver
Her slippers going shuffle, shuffle on the floor
Ten minutes of nothing, and I'd leave her believer
That love was a number you could dial once more
A calendar from the butcher on the wall
A clock that ran five minutes late for all
I used to stretch the cord around the door
To hide inside the cupboard, whispering for more

Four, seven, one
Eight, three, two
Even in my sleep
I know what to do

Number by heart, number by heart
Nobody's there, but I still dial
Number by heart, number by heart
Ring for me, ring for a while
(number by heart)

Four, seven, one
(four, seven, one)
Eight, three, two
(four, seven, one)
Eight, three, two
(eight, three, two)
Number by heart
(by heart)

Tonight it rings and it doesn't stop dead
A child says hello with a mouth full of bread
I say I think I've got the wrong house
He says no you haven't, wait, I'll get Mum
Behind him a kettle, a cartoon, a door
A dog that is barking at nobody there
A cupboard that bangs the way it banged before
A grown-up laughing like she's laughed there before
I say I used to live there, kind of, in a way
He says cool, we've got jollof today
I hear a spoon on a pot, a hand on a chair
A sister yelling sit down, a shoe on the stair
The mum comes on, she says, who is this
I say somebody homesick, she says, then stay for the dish

Four, seven, one
Eight, three, two
Even in my sleep
I know what to do

Number by heart, number by heart
Nobody's there, but I still dial
Number by heart, number by heart
Ring for me, ring for a while
(number by heart)

Four, seven, one
(four, seven, one)
Eight, three, two
(four, seven, one)
Eight, three, two
(eight, three, two)
Number by heart
(by heart)

I hang up soft, like closing a book
On a page I thought was mine to keep
The house is full of somebody's noise
And the noise is the proof that it's warm, not asleep
Let it ring, let it ring
For somebody else's evening
Let it ring, let it ring
Someone stirs a pot in the room I knew
And it's the same old pot, it's the same old stew
Let it ring

Number by heart, number by heart
Somebody's there, and it's warm inside
Number by heart, number by heart
Ring for them, ring for a long long time
(number by heart)
(somebody's there)

Four, seven, one

Four, seven, one
(four, seven, one)
Eight, three, two
(four, seven, one)
Eight, three, two
(eight, three, two)

Number by heart
(by heart)
Number by heart

Number by heart
(by heart)
Number by heart
(ring, ring)