On the West Side |
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1 | Staring at the sidewalk on Central Park West | |
2 | I'm trying to do what some say I do best | |
3 | 'Mid the basements ant the rooftops | |
4 | And the long runs and the short stops | |
5 | In this teaming island city of contrast | |
6 | A woman of the New World | |
7 | With the harbor at her breast | |
8 | I've taken about all that I can digest | |
9 | Of the isolation mid the conclave | |
10 | Of the old school and the new wave | |
11 | Where the future holds the shadows of the past | |
12 | Like a pallid ghost of milling crowds | |
13 | When the moon is riding in the clouds | |
14 | The world is draped in smoky shrouds | |
15 | It's midnight | |
16 | At high tide | |
17 | As the darkness | |
18 | Slowly settles | |
19 |
On the West Side |
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20 | Surely Monday Morning would see it like this: | |
21 | Riverside Church poised across the abyss | |
22 | Mid the time-space and the prescient | |
23 | And appeal to the omnipotent | |
24 | While the pilgrim in the street is fading fast | |
25 | Paradisial hells oppose eternal bliss | |
26 | Subway station clamor in the name of Jesus | |
27 | It's a whisper wrapped in gold leaf | |
28 | It's a watchdog and a horse-thief | |
29 | Where the future holds the shadows of the past | |
30 | Like a poltergeist with thorny crown | |
31 | When the silver light is pouring down | |
32 | The world is dressed in greys and brown | |
33 | It's midnight | |
34 | At high tide | |
35 | As the angel | |
36 | Of the darkness | |
37 | Slowly settles | |
38 |
On the West Side |
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39 | Rose petal softness and pieces of glass | |
40 | So many looking for pieces of ass | |
41 | Searching for the big tickle | |
42 | Somewhere in the granite apple | |
43 | She's a tease | |
44 |
Steal your heart and give you fleas |
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45 | Down beneath the highway it's a scene of war | |
46 | Pirates, saints, and prophets that work the long-shore | |
47 | Mid the roses and the garbage | |
48 | And the freedom and the bondage | |
49 | To the game that pits the first with drowning last | |
50 | Spray-paint words and faces scrawl the living folk lore | |
51 | Traffic echos mutter, "Baby, what you come here for? | |
52 | "Why you dressing up so pretty? | |
53 | "Why you walking in the city | |
54 | "Where the future holds the shadows of the past?" | |
55 | Like a spectral image of the time | |
56 | When the sirens scream and church bells chime | |
57 | The world is made of steel and grime | |
58 | It's midnight | |
59 | At high tide | |
60 | As the shadow | |
61 | Of the angel | |
62 | Of the darkness | |
63 | Slowly settles | |
64 |
On the West Side |
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