Neutral Gear

[Verse 1]
The ketchup bottles at The Orbit Diner sweat in the July heat.
We watch the college kids spill out onto Water Street.
Saw your dad's old Grand Am with the passenger-side dent,
Another hairline fracture in the argument.
The clock on the fryer ticks past three.

[Chorus]
And we see the whole system fail,
From behind the kitchen rail.
We just keep pouring.
It's a fierce and holy thing, the morning.

[Verse 2]
There's a couple in booth four, tracing patterns in the grease.
A long, load-bearing silence, praying for release.
She finally looks up, says "I feel the signal fade."
Heard him whisper back, "It's the promise that we made."
The smell of burnt sugar and old coffee grounds.

[Chorus]
And we see the whole system fail,
From behind the kitchen rail.
We just keep pouring.
It's a fierce and holy thing, the morning.

[Bridge]
Kao's mom sent sticky rice, it warms the whole damn kitchen.
We are the witnesses, the hum in the transmission.
Finding our own gravity in someone else's stall,
A different kind of grace before the fall.

[Chorus]
And we see the whole system fail,
From behind the kitchen rail.
We just keep pouring.
It's a fierce and holy thing, the morning.


[Outro]
Engine's seized. Wipe the counter down.