The Slow Spin

[Verse 1]
The big plastic Lazy Susan at the New Saigon Palace
Has a little sticky hitch around the chili oil chalice.
We’ve learned the sound it makes, a tiny plastic sigh,
As we pass the pickled mustard greens under a fluorescent sky.
We watch the condensation drip from glasses of ice water,
A lesson for every son, a promise to every daughter.

[Chorus]
And we just keep it turnin', the slow, silent spin.
A little more nước chấm, a way of lettin' duty in.
We don't need the big words for what we'll never lose,
Just the weight of a porcelain spoon, passing on the news.

[Verse 2]
Every Sunday since 'ninety-three, we've taken the same corner booth.
Learned to read the silence, learned to parcel out the truth.
"Eat more," our fathers say, not lookin' up from their bowls.
We're sharin' one big harvest grown from two different soils.
My cousin takes the last fish ball, I pretend I didn't see.
That's how we say forgiveness here, between you and me.

[Chorus]
And we just keep it turnin', the slow, silent spin.
A little more nước chấm, a way of lettin' duty in.
We don't need the big words for what we'll never lose,
Just the weight of a porcelain spoon, passing on the news.

[Bridge]
It's a plastic irrigation wheel on a vinyl tablecloth sea,
Pushing what you need to me, pulling what you need from me.
A clockwise kind of prayer, a circle we can't break,
For the things we give each other for our parents' sake.

[Outro]
(Music strips to a single acoustic guitar and vocal)
Just the quiet turnin'...
...here, you take the rest.