Seals Are from Mars,
Penguins Are from Venus

(Verse 1) I traded two sardines for the way you say my name, the market closed at midnight but my heart stayed open same. Supply is low and demand is you, the ledger's in the red I'd bankrupt every ocean just to keep you fed. (Chorus) It's fish economics, baby, nothing adds up right, I keep investing everything and lose it every night. But you're the only currency this orbit ever knew so here's my last sardine, and here's my whole heart too. (Verse 2) The penguins ran the numbers, said this love would not be sound, no profit in the longing, no return to go around. But I have never balanced books with anyone like you let the auditors go hungry; I know what I'll do. (Bridge) Crash the little market, let the sardine prices fall, when it comes to loving you I'll spend it, spend it all. (Chorus) It's fish economics, baby, nothing adds up right, but you're the only currency that's worth the appetite so here's my last sardine, and here's my whole heart too.

(Verse 1) Step one: present a pebble, smooth and grey and true. Step two: pretend it's casual (it never is with you). The handbook says be patient, file the feelings in advance but no protocol on Venus ever planned for this romance. (Chorus) So I'm off the protocol, off the dotted line, tearing up the paperwork that kept you from being mine. Section four said keep composure, that's the part I can't fake; the only courtship protocol is showing up awake. (Verse 2) I rehearsed it in the mirror, every clause and every code, then forgot it all the second that you walked across the road. My flippers started shaking, all my training came undone turns out loving someone isn't something you outrun. (Bridge) File it under reckless, file it under true, there's no approved procedure for the way I feel for you. (Chorus) So I'm off the protocol, off the dotted line, and the only form I'm filing says I hope that you'll be mine the only courtship protocol is showing up for real.

(Verse 1) The shipment was supposed to land at nine, the seals showed up at noon and said everything's fine. Half the soup's on Mars, the rest is in my chest, the logistics fell apart but somehow we're still blessed. (Chorus) It's a failure, it's a mess, it's a beautiful collapse, every plan we ever made dissolved into the gaps. But the cargo that survived was just us two in flight a total logistics failure, and the best one of my life. (Verse 2) We lost the manifest, we lost the schedule too, we lost the whole itinerary somewhere over you. The penguins filed a grievance, stamped it "unforeseen" but no one plans for love this big in any in between. (Bridge) Reroute me, redirect me, lose me in the dark, as long as I'm offloading every sardine in my heart. (Chorus) It's a failure, it's a mess, it's a beautiful collapse, but I'd run it all again and never mind the maps a total logistics failure, and the best one of my life.

(Verse 1) You said it was Class III, I swore it was Class IV, we argued in the archive 'til they locked the reading room door. A casual stone, an alignment stone, we both refused to fold, two stubborn little creatures and one small grey piece of gold. (Chorus) Oh the pebble dispute, the pebble dispute, two hearts and one stone and nobody else to recruit. We can fight about the classes 'til the orbit comes around, but the meaning's only "stay with me," that's all we ever found. (Verse 2) We took it to committee, they were no help at all, they filed it under "complicated," pinned it to the wall. The footnotes got romantic, the margins got it wrong some objects can't be sorted; they just want to belong. (Bridge) Turns out the class was Ceremonial all along the pebble meant I'll fight with you and still know I belong. (Chorus) Oh the pebble dispute, the pebble dispute, we filed the whole thing under love and called the matter moot of every rock I've ever held, that argument's the best.

(Verse 1) What you see is ten percent, the rest is down below, a quiet penguin on the surface, oceans you don't know. I said that I was doing fine and meant a hundred things the weather service logged it as a longing system's wings. (Chorus) We're all just floating icebergs in a cold and gentle sea, showing you the tip of what is happening to me. But you dove down to find the part I never let them see and called it home, and called it home, the deep down nine of three. (Verse 2) You didn't try to melt me, didn't tell me to be small, you brought a little soup and sat beside me through it all. The depth that used to scare me felt like somewhere we could stay, you mapped my hidden fathoms and you didn't swim away. (Bridge) So here's the ninety percent, the under and the deep, the things I never say out loud, the parts I tried to keep. (Chorus) We're all just floating icebergs in a cold and gentle sea, but you went under with me and you let the cold things be and called it home, and called it home, the deep down nine of three.

(Verse 1) The sign said WALK, my heart said GO, the floor was waxed and wide, Hallway 3 was calling and I would not be denied. The Bureau's gonna file a form, the Bureau's gonna sigh but baby for one second there a seal like me could fly. (Chorus) Unauthorized! Unsanctioned! Unbelievably alive! I cleared the corner, stuck the turn, and somehow I survived. Safety beats speed, I know, I know, I'll sign the forms in three but love is just an unposted ramp, and you're the floor to me. (Verse 2) They posted up a warning sign, I read it upside down, I've never met a corridor I didn't want to crown. You cheered me from the doorway, said be careful, said be free, so I built a little velocity and aimed it straight at thee. (Bridge) Write me up, write me up, hang the citation high, I'd take the whole infraction just to watch you watch me fly. (Chorus) Unauthorized! Unsanctioned! Unbelievably alive! the only rule I'm keeping is to keep you by my side 'cause love is just an unposted ramp, and you're the floor to me.

(Verse 1) Spinning slow above the blue, a tin can full of light, we hum along the corridors and patch it every night. It isn't much, it drifts a bit, the map is half a guess but it's ours, this little station, in its low orbit address. (Chorus) Low orbit, low and steady, with the soup pots on the boil, a thousand quiet kindnesses just under all the toil. If home is what you keep repairing then we're rich beyond our means just penguins, seals, and sardines on a station in between. (Verse 2) The lights flicker on the night shift, something rattles in the vents, somebody's always fixing something, nobody resents. We learned to love the leaking parts, the corners worn and thin a home is not where nothing breaks; it's where they let you in. (Bridge) So let it drift, so let it creak, so let the seams show through, I'd orbit this old sardine can forever next to you. (Chorus) Low orbit, low and steady, with the soup pots on the boil, we hold it all together on a little ring of foil just penguins, seals, and sardines on a station in between.

(Verse 1) Window's open, take a number, fill the feeling in the box, declare what you are carrying, then sit and watch the clocks. I've got a form for missing you, I've got a stamp for stay, the Migration Office blues are just the toll for going away. (Chorus) It's the blues, the customs blues, in the buzzing office light, a suitcase full of maybe and a heart that won't sit right. But the officer looked up at me and slid a permit through no charge for coming back, my friend, we saved a spot for you. (Verse 2) I declared a little heartbreak, I declared a little hope, they weighed it on the counter and they handed me some rope. "You're cleared," they said, "for landing, you're cleared for one more try" and the stamp came down like sunrise on a customs office sky. (Bridge) Belonging permit, ink still wet, the rubber stamp came down, turns out the place you wander from is still your hometown. (Chorus) So it's the blues, the customs blues, but the blues turned something true, there's no charge for coming back, my friend, they always wait for you belonging permit, ink still wet, and everything's alright.

(Verse 1) We lost another seal at customs, third one just this week, it wandered past the sardine line and vanished, soft and meek. We sounded the alarm (a gentle bell), we searched the holding bay found it napping in the lost and found; it never went away. (Chorus) Oh we lose them and we find them, that's the customs hall refrain, nobody's gone forever on this orbit, that's the deal so we'll lose another seal at customs and we'll bring it home again, 'cause losing isn't leaving, and we always keep it real. (Verse 2) It clutched a little pebble and a blanket worn and grey, it wasn't really lost at all, just tired of the day. We dimmed the lights, we left some soup, we let the small thing rest of all the recoveries we've logged, the quiet ones are best. (Bridge) Mark it found, mark it found, strike it from the board, no creature stays unaccounted for that this old station's toward. (Chorus) Oh we lose them and we find them, that's the customs hall refrain, we'll leave a light, we'll leave a bowl, we'll call them home by name 'cause losing isn't leaving, and we always keep it real.

(Verse 1) Everything we built will crack, and that was always so, the trick was never "never break," the trick is what we know: that you'll be there with tape in hand the morning after dark, and I'll be there for you in turn, two hands around one spark. (Chorus) Small steps, big hearts, warm soup, repeat, the whole philosophy, a station held by showing up, by you, by them, by me. We never thought it'd hold itself, we never even tried we just kept on repairing it, together, side by side. (Verse 2) The orb is mostly fine tonight, Hallway 3 is still, the soup is on, the lights are low, the ladle's on its hill. Whatever breaks tomorrow we will mend it like before that's not a flaw in what we built; that's what the building's for. (Bridge) So here's the reprise, soft and sure, the melody we made, we kept it standing, kept it kind, and that is how love's paid. (Finale) Small steps, big hearts, warm soup, repeat, until the orbits end, we'll patch it all and patch it all and patch it all again we kept it standing, kept it kind, and that is how love's paid.