[Intro][The applause settles. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar circles a quiet waltz while upright piano plays the three-note motif. A dining-car lamp clicks on.]

[Verse 1][Male Vocal: Josef]
The dining-car shutters were lowered halfway,
No coffee till morning, no plates left to clear.
One lamp caught the rim where the cups used to stay,
One silver spoon waited, the last thing still there.
The crest had worn level; the handle was bent,
Small dents in the bowl caught the dining-car light.
I turned it and counted the years it had spent,
And heard glass against rail in the hush of the night.

[Chorus][Male Vocal: Josef]
This silver spoon recalls each cup it stirred,
A shaking hand at midnight, a half-swallowed word.
Its crest is worn level; its handle bends back;
It crossed twelve borders on a dining-car rack.
Lock the dining carriage, stack the cups by noon;
I still hear the railway in this silver spoon.

[Verse 2][Male Vocal: Josef]
I started when sleepers ran farther than dawn,
With linen in cupboards and bells by each door.
Night workers and soldiers rode till morning came on,
While students lay sleeping with books on the floor.
Once near the Austrian line, labour came fast;
The cook boiled water while night windows passed.
No paper recorded the child's first cry,
But a card reached the crew every first of July.

[Piano Interlude][Upright piano repeats the motif while brushes trace the slow circular rhythm of a cup being stirred.]

[Verse 3][Male Vocal: Josef]
Mara asked why I rode when my last shift was through.
I watched station lamps break apart on the glass.
One more cold winter might close the route too;
No dining staff left and no funding to last.
They counted each axle, each blanket, each train,
Then left out the reasons the passengers came.
I rode south to see who still passed through those rooms,
Before dust took the tables and rust took the spoons.

[Bridge][Male Vocal: Josef]
I laid the small spoon in Mara's open hand.
"Keep this till morning. I sleep when I can."
Her fingers closed round it. The dining car swayed.
She wrapped it in tissue and put it away.

[Final Chorus][Male Vocal: Josef with Soft Female Harmony: Mara]
This silver spoon recalls each cup it stirred,
A shaking hand at midnight, a half-swallowed word.
Its crest is worn level; its handle bends back;
It crossed twelve borders on a dining-car rack.
Lock the dining carriage, stack the cups by noon;
I still hear the railway in this silver spoon.

[Post-Chorus][Male Vocal: Josef]
The bowl had gone cloudy; the crest nearly gone.
Mara pocketed it before the lights came on.
If next winter shutters the room where we ate,
Those small dents still carry the rattle of plates.

[Outro][Hammond organ enters on one sustained chord as Josef closes the dining-car cabinet.]

[Male Vocal: Josef]
One cup upside down.
One lamp burning low.
One spoon in her pocket.
Still hundreds to go.