Emotional Support Dumplings
Genre Tags: Indie Rock, Art Pop, Experimental Folk, Chamber Pop, Trip-Hop Influences Vocal Tags: Hushed Male Vocals, Breathy Falsetto, Layered Harmonies, Whispered Spoken Word, Nasally Tenor, Vocal Stacking Instrument Tags: Fingerpicked Acoustic Guitar, Minimal Piano Chords, Sparse Programmed Drums, Ambient Synth Pads, Glockenspiel, Bowed Cello, Muted Hand Claps, Lo-Fi Tape Hiss, Pizzicato Strings Mood Tags: Intimate Unease, False Warmth, Creeping Paranoia, Tender Menace, Domestic Horror, Bittersweet Betrayal
Emotional Support Dumplings
Genre Tags: Indie Rock, Art Pop, Experimental Folk, Chamber Pop, Trip-Hop Influences Vocal Tags: Hushed Male Vocals, Breathy Falsetto, Layered Harmonies, Whispered Spoken Word, Nasally Tenor, Vocal Stacking Instrument Tags: Fingerpicked Acoustic Guitar, Minimal Piano Chords, Sparse Programmed Drums, Ambient Synth Pads, Glockenspiel, Bowed Cello, Muted Hand Claps, Lo-Fi Tape Hiss, Pizzicato Strings Mood Tags: Intimate Unease, False Warmth, Creeping Paranoia, Tender Menace, Domestic Horror, Bittersweet Betrayal
Lyrics
Intro
Flour on her wrists like tourniquets,
she folds the dough in quarters
practices origami with the soft parts,
thumbprints pressed like little oaths
Verse 1
Steam curls off the bamboo lid,
she counts them out in sevens
one for every Sunday I believed her
when she said the broth was medicine
Pleated edges crimped like sutures,
pork and ginger, thyme and salt,
she hums a lullaby in Celsius,
warm enough to melt the fault
Pre-Chorus
And I swallow, I swallow, I swallow whole
every pleat, every fold, every careful parole
Chorus 1
Emotional support dumplings on the counter cooling down
She says eat, love, eat they're good for what ails you now
But one of them is heavier and I can't tell you which
And the woman with the flour hands
won't stop smiling while I chew
Verse 2
Chopsticks tap a plastic plate,
she watches like a pharmacist
doses measured, pupils segueing
left to right across my lips
There's vinegar, there's sesame,
there's something underneath the skin
that catches light like surgical,
too thin to feel go in
Pre-Chorus
And I swallow, I swallow, I swallow blind
every gift is a envelope I should hold to the light
Chorus 2
Emotional support dumplings and the soy sauce running dark
She says eat, love, eat you'll feel it disassemble in your heart
But one of them is loaded and it's patient as a saint
And the woman with the clean hands
hasn't blinked in forty minutes
Bridge
Higurashi, higurashi
the evening cicadas knew before I did
that kindness with a seam down the middle
is just cruelty folded in half
She kept the recipe in a lockbox,
wrote "For You" on every portion,
and I mistook the metallic for devotion,
called the bloodmouth flavor "love"
Verse 3
The needle finds my lower gum
a comma in the sentence
where she promised me forever
and forever was the punchline
She peels the gloves off finger-first,
arranges them beside the wrappers,
tells me sorry like a customs form:
printed, dated, stamped, and vacant
Pre-Chorus
And I swallowed, I swallowed, I swallowed it all
every pleat was a teeth-mark, every fold was a wall
Chorus 3
Emotional support dumplings and the blood pooling like broth
She says eat, love, eat I made them because I care so much
But every single one was heavy, I just picked the wrong one last
And the woman with the steady hands
was never trembling I was
Outro
Flour on her wrists,
flour on her wrists,
she folds the soft parts,
she folds the soft parts
and I opened wide