Under the Breakroom Light

Lyrics :

Breakroom mirror, top corner chipped
White light buzzing, puts ten years on everybody
Apron string loose, badge turned backward
Salt mark on the chest where the steam kept drying
Smell like fryer oil, lemon soap, wet denim
Thumb split open where the cardboard caught it
Cap came off, left a band on the forehead
Hair stood up flat like the shift still holding it
My smile stayed on half a second longer
Wrong for the room, but hard to switch off clean
Manager voice still stuck in the shoulders
Neck too tight from saying sure, no problem
Sink full of grey water, somebody shaved in it
Paper towel box hanging by one screw
No sermon there, no message, no healing
Just what fluorescent light does to the used-up truth

Under the breakroom light
Grease on the cuff, red on the brow
Name tag turned in
Nobody needs me now
Under the breakroom light
Face coming loose at the seams
Whole shift still there
In places I can't clean

Locker door sticks, got to hit it twice
Coins in the pocket, receipt gone soft with heat
One guy laughing loud past the vending machine
That empty kind of laugh people use to stay vertical
Bleach on the laces, flour on the black jeans
Wrists still dry where the soap missed skin
I stood there long enough for the bus to matter
Long enough for my face to drop its customer version
No big sadness, no grand collapse
Just the body giving back what the hours did
Mouth still shaped like yes before thinking
Eyes gone flat from agreeing in sequence
Some people leave work at the doorway
I drag it home in smell, posture, and temperature
Even on the train with the dark in the window
You can see the shift sitting on me plain

Under the breakroom light
Grease on the cuff, red on the brow
Name tag turned in
Nobody needs me now
Under the breakroom light
Face coming loose at the seams
Whole shift still there
In places I can't clean

Apron in hand
Badge in the pocket
Door on a spring
Bus still running