Rain slicks the windshield on Clark and Division
The diner sign flickers a tired admission
My cab idles quiet in early submission
She watches the basement with quiet precision
She don't need a meter to know the fare
The music downstairs rides the midnight air
Coffee gets cold but she stays in her chair
Waiting for the solo nobody hears
Apron stained brown from a thousand late shifts
Her pencil waits where the order pad sits
Steam curls up slow from the chipped ceramic bits
Eyes fixed on stairs where the night shade first flits
She don't need a meter to know the fare
The music downstairs rides the midnight air
Coffee gets cold but she stays in her chair
Waiting for the solo nobody hears
Blue neon bleeds down the stone basement stair
Saxophone cries cut the heavy night air
She knows each player by the weight of their care
The trumpet player's wife left a note on his chair
Meter's not running but I'm still keeping score
Of every night she opens that same brown door
The city sleeps heavy on the lakefront floor
She's the only witness to what they played for
My father said son watch the hands not the face
Time tells its truth in the lines and the grace
She reads the music in the steam's slow trace
Knows when the solo finds its resting place
She don't need a meter to know the fare
The music downstairs rides the midnight air
Coffee gets cold but she stays in her chair
Waiting for the solo nobody hears
Last call rings out but she don't turn her head
The bassist walks out where the streetlights spread
She folds her napkin where the coffee led
Another night done another tune played
She don't need a meter to know the fare
The music downstairs rides the midnight air
Coffee gets cold but she stays in her chair
Waiting for the solo nobody hears
Waiting for the solo nobody hears
Rain stops falling on Clark Division
Engine turns over in quiet submission
