I have mapped the cupboards and drawers
Tracked the least walked spots on the floor
Happy to be home safe and warm
As shadows by their feet
The odd vanishing treat
Quietly eating while they sleep
So here's where I'll be raising my kids
If I can find someone to start a family with
Till then, I’ll dream of the day my odds and ends fit
I'll wake up, there'll be food on the stove
Forever and never want for more
[Chorus]
Is therе cheese in the great bеyond?
Rinds of parmesan
Wine to water, night from dawn
Life gets shorter, teeth grow long
Mind me not and I’ll mind my own
And my mind’s not one bite smaller or lesser than yours
Do I belong in right and wrong?
Nature, I guess
[Verse 2]
One night, one flung light through this place
So I run for cover, over under, left the rind out on the plate
Little heart racing and praying, “Something keep me safe”
I think it saw my face
Okay, one hungry day is nothing come what may
But then winter came inside for three nights
Left me grinding my teeth between my walls and gripping my dreams tight
Curled up, kept my head up, and put up the fight
I’ll make it through again
I have before
C’mon, now, what’s one more?
Is there cheese in the great beyond?
Rinds of parmesan
Wine to water, night from dawn
Life gets shorter, teeth grow long
Mind me not and I’ll mind my own
And my mind’s not one bite smaller or lesser than yours
Do I belong in right and wrong?
Nature, I guess
[Bridge]
Spring bloomed in the kitchen again
So I crawled out of the wall and squinting
Saw hope on the stovetop
Just like I’d always imagined it
More than I could eat
My dreams were finally reality
My struggles had a happy ending
They must want to be friends
My stomach starts to turn
With thirst, why does it hurt?
My just dessert is served, dig in
[Chorus]
So I stumble back to bed
Something’s not quite right
Guess I’ll just go rest my head
Now as I lay me down to sleep
I expect no dreams
And no sweet goodbye to me
Flatline in the morning light
I held on so tight
For so long, it’s just not right
Let a sigh out as I close my eyes
Was that all there was to this?
What’s for the best?
Is there cheese in the great beyond?
What’s the moon made of?
Meet me there after I’m gone
Life gets shorter, teeth grow long
Mind me not and I’ll mind my own
And my mind held the same light as the one in your eyes
[Outro]
Do I belong in right and wrong?
One dies alone? And why? Don’t know
Goodbye, so long
To mice in homes
Nature, I guess
Nature, I guess
Nature, I guess
About
“Tomcat Disposables” tells the story of a mouse who finds itself living in someone’s house, trying to survive and dreaming of a comfortable life, only to finally be killed via a poison trap. The song gets its title from the Tomcat brand of disposable mouse traps.
On American Pancake, Will Wood explained that he made the song to honor a mouse in his kitchen that he befriended and fed but then ended up killing with a poison trap.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
“I have a weird affinity for pests. Oddly relatable. They don’t mean to harm anyone, but they spread disease and leave most of us figuring they should probably die. During the winter of the pandemic, I walked into my wrecked kitchen to find a mouse trying to drag a big parmesan rind into a gap behind the oven, all bug-eyed and bird-footed. He ran away when he saw me, so I broke the cheese into smaller pieces, figuring it was cold out and he could use a hand. New friend.
But I learned his particular species carry some particularly deadly diseases, so despite desperately wanting not to, I gave in and accepted some poison traps from my landlord. They worked, and then I spent a couple days bleaching everything and losing my marbles.
It’s sick. You make the mouse think he’s found an enormous supply of food in his warm new shelter. He eats it, full of hope and gratitude, then it’s curtains. I knew the “humane” traps would have just let the winter air kill him and do so slower, but I pulled an awful little trick on my friend. In hindsight maybe I also found falling for that trick oddly relatable.
I wrote this song as a sort of tribute. I’m embarrassingly proud of the fact that I did all the orchestration for it – it’s my first time arranging such a large band. I hope the song honors my friend well. Sorry, mouse.” – Will Wood on American Pancake
Will Wood also comments on the music video for the song itself as well on Behind The Curtains Media:
“I’m really lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Ivan Owen of Beyond the Bark on this video. Ivan builds laser-cut wooden mechanics and then uses stop motion animation to show them operating in some really interesting ways. The precisely-engineered machinery is juxtaposed with itself by virtue of it all being made of wood, which I think speaks to some of the feelings I’m trying to express in this song in a sort of abstract way. It takes place in a world that’s mechanical but natural. There’s something to the story Ivan and I tried to tell with the video that is about accepting the inherent unfairness and injustice of reality. Nature is just a machine doing what it’s designed to be able to do. We’re just sort of cogs in it. It’s kind of a sigh, I suppose. At how you’re born, you struggle, and then you randomly die. So when the universe plays a cruel joke on us, no matter how dark and screwball it is, sometimes all we can do is throw our hands up and say “nature, I guess.”'
- 1.Tomcat Disposables
- 3.Cicada Days
- 4.Euthanasia
- 5.Falling Up
- 15.Willard!
- 16.White Noise