[Intro]
[brushed guitar, single chord, café ambience under]
[spoken, drowsy, confused]
(First morning on the other side of the world. I'm awake at 6am. have I beaten jetlag?
Time for breakfast.
Let's step out and find some.)

[Verse 1]
Slept through the night, apart from the midnight hour when
my body still thought it was light
Fifty-six metres, the app doesn't lie
there it was, a fair dinkum cafe

Full Irish, of course, and a small flat white
some things travel well from home.
Outside table — the smoker's mark, I've learned
seven thirty, brisk but not cold

[Chorus]
I ask for a second coffee as the waiter walks by.
Just brought, on trust, that I'd pay inside later.
That's a pleasure money can't buy

[Verse 2]
Street cleaners scraping stickers off a bin
then rolling it over in grey
[percussion enters, light, mirroring the scraping]
No sign to say wet paint, no warning at all
someone's sleeve is going to pay

Man beside me hides his smoke under the table
like he's tired of the joke.
The smoke drifts past, I don't mind it,
not next to the fumes from the paint

[Chorus]
And the second coffee comes
before I've said a word about the bill
Just brought, on trust, that I'd pay inside later
that's value money can't buy

[Bridge]
[strip back to guitar and voice]
Homeostasis doesn't mean
the world stays still, stays the same
Constant work goes into holding
constant work to keep the frame

[Verse 3]
Catering trucks pass, the commuters start
getting on with their day
The bin dries grey, unremarkable now
like it was never anything but
(homeostasis)

[Final Chorus]
[full arrangement, choir doubling the last line]
The day is new.
For me, here.
Although it's almost over
In the land I'm from.
t
There's walking to do.
Things to find.
A charger that plugs into a wall.
A museum, a record of times past.
A book.
Of Kells.

[Outro]
[guitar only, fading with café ambience]
Constant work to hold the frame
Constant work to hold the frame