Hawker Stall Shutters Down, Ledger Up

Lyrics

Ten p.m., the fryer's cooling down
Uncle wipes the steel and turns the sign around
Ledger on the counter, pencil behind his ear
Counting coins and bills, counting every year
Forty years of mornings starting well before the sun
Broth that took a night and never once got done
I stack the plastic stools, I hose the floor
He slides a bowl across and says there's always more

Shutters down, ledger up
Tally what we earned and what we gave
Shutters down, fill the cup
Small stall, big heart, that's the way
Not every profit shows up in the book
Some of it's the look the regulars took
Shutters down, ledger up
One more day made it to the page

Auntie from the flower shop comes for the last bowl
Pays in jokes and gossip, feeds the stall its soul
Taxi drivers leaning in for something hot to eat
Cabbie says the secret's in the way he works the heat
I ask him why he never raised the price
He says a full belly's worth more than ice
Hands like worn leather, voice like gravel and glue
Taught me every rhyme is just a recipe too

Shutters down, ledger up
Tally what we earned and what we gave
Shutters down, fill the cup
Small stall, big heart, that's the way
Not every profit shows up in the book
Some of it's the look the regulars took
Shutters down, ledger up
One more day made it to the page

He closes the book and taps it twice
Says the numbers are fine, the neighbors are nice
I turn the lights off, one, two, three
Whole street's quiet, the stall is free

Walk home slow with the smell in my shirt
Pockets full of change, no weight, no hurt
Someday this stall will have my name on the sign
But the name on the ledger will always be his line
I write it all down in a notebook of my own
The way he taught me, never rhyme alone

Shutters down, ledger up
Tally what we earned and what we gave
Shutters down, fill the cup
Small stall, big heart, that's the way
Not every profit shows up in the book
Some of it's the look the regulars took
Shutters down, ledger up
One more day made it to the page