The Genius Waitress Part 2: Coffee Shop Sonnets

Weird when you realize that stuff strikes the same chord (pun deliciously intended) in you because it strikes the same chord in the collective unconscious in everyone. In thinking about my last post, and about contemporary odes to waitresses, I have loved very much a couple of songs over the years and it's never all come together until just now.

Here are the lyrics to "You", one of the most haunting songs off of Atmosphere's most recent album, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, (which is an incredible, soulful, intelligent mix of Twin Cities hip-hop beats and straight, honest poetry in the lyrics, I'll have you know).

"You love the people that love you
You hear the music they move to
You give your ode to the fall through
But you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't know

You love the people that love you
You hear the music they move to
You give your ode to the fall through
But you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't know you.

You just got off work, huh?
Another night feeling like the worst one
You didn't even count your tips yet,
But you can tell that it ain't no big step
I don't see why you so nice to customers
They're all fucks and lowlifes.
But don't fight, just keep the lip stiff
And get that money, it's the weekend shift.

But why they all gotta be freaks?
Wish they would just eat and leave
And keep they eyes to they selves, already insecure, don't need any help
And you can blame the pride that makes you hold your anger inside,
But deep down you wanna curse them all.
Fuck off asshole, jerkoff, dirtball.

You love the people that love you
You hear the music they move to
You give your ode to the fall through
But you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't know

You love the people that love you
You hear the music they move to
You give your ode to the fall through
But you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't know you

Now attitude check,
Still show up, you haven't quit yet,
And even when your meat gets sweet
They still treat you like a piece of meat. Huh.
Outrageous, each day this
clock tick-tock and you still a waitress

Trying to pay them student loans
And the lights and the phone and the food and the home,
And you ain't quite broke but you couldn't afford that place on your own.
Got a roommate, to split the rent with
Now you never feel independent.

And everything seems so hollow
‘Cause after work, where'd that smile go?
Better bring it back tomorrow.
Now, pick up the pace and you might make bar close.

Perfect, last call, then some.
Flirtin', sexual tension.
Surfin', through them men
‘Cause they all searching for that bent one
Or just one to bend, and “you look like you could be my friend
With a smile like that, I gotta flirt,
Girl, you just look like you got off work.”

You love the people that love you
You hear the music they move to
You give your ode to the fall through
But you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't know

You love the people that love you
You hear the music they move to
You give your ode to the fall through
But you don't know you don't know you don't know you don't know you."

And the other, an oldie but goodie, "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. You'd know it by the simple, haunting "doot do do do doot doo doo do" refrain if you heard it, believe me. We've done freestyle lyric riffs off it just for fun. But her lyrics are infinite, epic and so very simple. I just love coffee shop sonnets, I suppose:

I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner

I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee

And he fills it
Only halfway
And before
I even argue

He is looking
Out the window
At somebody
Coming in

"It is always
Nice to see you"
Says the man
Behind the counter

To the woman
Who has come in
She is shaking
Her umbrella

And I look
The other way
As they are kissing
Their hellos

I'm pretending
Not to see them
Instead
I pour the milk

I open
Up the paper
There's a story
Of an actor

Who had died
While he was drinking
It was no one
I had heard of

And I'm turning
To the horoscope
And looking
For the funnies

When I'm feeling
Someone watching me
And so
I raise my head

There's a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?

No she does not
Really see me
Cause she sees
Her own reflection

And I'm trying
Not to notice
That she's hitching
Up her skirt

And while she's
Straightening her stockings
Her hair
Has gotten wet

Oh, this rain
It will continue
Through the morning
As I'm listening

To the bells
Of the cathedral
I am thinking
Of your voice...

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began...

I finish up my coffee
It's time to catch the train."