No further action

Verse 1

He'd have made a decent clerk filing somebody else's decisions Instead he wanted the title wanted the room, wanted the chair Three centuries of wanting the chair and it took less than an evening He had time, on the way down, to wonder if the chair had been worth it

Pre-Chorus

Nobody's going to write down what actually happened There's already a phrase for it

Chorus

No further action No further action Say it flat enough and nobody asks what the action was No further action No further action It fits on a card It fits in a mouth It never has to fit the truth

Verse 2

I heard about it secondhand the way everyone hears about it A name stops coming up in conversation and somebody says the phrase instead of the name Nobody asks what "handled" means Nobody's supposed to ask That's the whole of the arrangement That's what the phrase is for

Pre-Chorus

Nobody's going to write down what actually happened There's already a phrase for it

Chorus (repeat)

Bridge

I've used the phrase myself more than once, more easily each time It's a good phrase It does exactly what it's built to do I just don't think about who's on the other end of it when I say it like I mean nothing by it

Final Chorus

No further action No further action Say it flat enough and nobody asks what the action was No further action No further action Somewhere there's a chair still warm and a phrase where a person used to be

Outro

Filed. Closed. No further action required.