[Verse 1]
"I ate the paste 'cause I was hungry!"
I cried, and ran out of the room
My mom and dad, they surely love me
But we don't always have a lot of food
And all the other kids are assholes
Makin' fun of my hand-me-down jeans
Life would be a lot less hassle
If I could just replace these pointless people with machines

[Chorus]
The perfect tickin' of a clockwork family
Everything happens right on time
Perfect rhythm of a life that can be
Counted on to finally work out fine
So much more reliably than mine

[Verse 2]
My uncle Tim is now in prison
After seven years of being unemployed
That would never happen to a robot
They can only break and be repaired or be destroyed
And they don't pass out on the sofa
Buried in a pile of empty beers
The absolute perfection of avuncular affection
In a shiny little box of spinning gears
[Chorus]
The perfect tickin' of a clockwork family
Everything happens right on time
Perfect rhythm of a life that can be
Counted on to finally work out fine
So much more reliably than mine

[Instrumental]

[Verse 3]
There is dirt in every corner
There's a sofa in the yard
When everything is out of order
Life is unpredictable and hard
But there's peace out on the highway
In the soft hissing rush of the machines
Quietly gliding, never quite colliding
Only fractions of a second in between

[Chorus]
The perfect tickin' of a clockwork family
Everything happens right on time
Perfect rhythm of a life that can be
Counted on to finally work out fine
So much more reliably than mine