When Numbers Get Serious - Paul Simon

I have a number in my head

Though I don’t know why it’s there

When numbers get serious

You see their shape everywhere

Dividing and multiplying

Exchanging with ease

When times are mysterious

Serious numbers are easy to please

Take my address

Take my phone

Call me if you can

Here’s my address

Here’s my phone

Please don’t give it to some madman

Hey hey, whoa whoa

Complicated life

Numbers swirling thick and curious

You can cut them with a knife

You can cut them with a knife

Two times two is twenty-two

Four times four is forty-four

When numbers get serious

They leave a mark on your door

Urgent.

Urgent

A telephone is ringing in the hallways

When times are mysterious

Serious numbers will speak to us always

That is why a man with numbers

Can put your mind at ease

We’ve got numbers by the trillions

Here and overseas

Hey hey, whoa whoa

Look at the stink about Japan

All those numbers waiting patiently

Don’t you understand?

Don’t you understand?

So wrap me

Wrap me

Wrap me do

In the shelter of your arms

I am ever your volunteer

I won’t do you any harm

I will love innumerably

You can count on my word

When times are mysterious

Serious numbers

Will always be heard

When times are mysterious

Serious numbers will always be heard

And after all is said and done

And the numbers all come home

The four rolls into three

The three turns into two

And the two becomes a

One