EATS: The Ponce Power Lunch

Lyrics

Six hundred Ponce...
Six hundred Ponce...

The line was always out the door, rain or shine.
Didn't matter, we had the time.
Students and suits and punks with patched-up jeans,
All of us just chasing down a plate of rice and peas.
The smell of the jerk hitting the dirty city air,
You could find your way with your eyes closed from anywhere.
You didn't need a menu, you just knew what you came for.

Give me that white melamine plate,
Don't make me wait.
Pile on the jerk chicken, the collards falling off the side.
A scoop of mac and cheese, nowhere left to hide.
It wasn't fancy, but it was true,
Everything I needed was right there with you.
On that white melamine plate.

The Clash on the speakers, a little too loud.
Elbow to elbow in the hungry crowd.
At the counter, you'd sit next to a total stranger,
Talk about the weather, the hope, the danger.
Just two people sharing a table for one,
Beneath the buzzing lights, until the meal was done.
The clatter of the forks was the only prayer we said.

Give me that white melamine plate,
Don't make me wait.
Pile on the jerk chicken, the collards falling off the side.
A scoop of mac and cheese, nowhere left to hide.
It wasn't fancy, but it was true,
Everything I needed was right there with you.
On that white melamine plate.

Then December came, twenty-twenty-one.
Just a note on the door saying, "It's been a good run."
The rent goes up, the costs get high,
And just like that, you have to say goodbye.
Now it's just a building, quiet and clean.
The ghost of a flavor, a memory of a scene.

On that white melamine plate!
(Yeah!)
On that white melamine plate!
(Everything I needed...)
The jerk chicken, the collards, the mac and cheese...
On that white melamine plate.