In The City - Carrie Newcomer

Chalk one up for the street

Mark one down for the city

One more grown baby boy is sleepin' on the sidewalk tonight

Wide round eyes, wide round lights

Can be full but without substance

In an instant you can hear an angel

Spread its wings and fly away

You’re in the city

Where you lay down your dreams

You can feel it, through the sidewalk

A heartbeat beneath your feet

Where they’ll let you smell the water

Then tell you «you can’t drink

You’re in the city now»

There’s a cry, there’s a roar

There’s a howl that never ends

There’s a silence that runs wide as it runs deep

And unspoken, broken people

Lying in the doorways

The light within them sputters and flickers

Like it almost had never been

You’re in the city

Where you lay down your dreams

You can feel it, through the sidewalk

A heartbeat beneath your feet

Where they’ll let you smell the water

Then tell you «you can’t drink

You’re in the city now»

There’s a light and it is you

There’s a light and it is me

There’s a hope that’s round and hollow

As a paper moon on a string

We can be perfect, we can be stronger

Saints are sinners who just tried longer

I am certainly no saint

But I surely heard the call

You’re in the city

Where you lay down your dreams

You can feel it, through the sidewalk

A heartbeat beneath your feet

Where they’ll let you smell the water

Then tell you «you can’t drink

You’re in the city now»