Along the Hudson

I wore a flight jacket once
Torn open all one winter
'Cause nothing in New York City
Not the trucks I unloaded
Or the streets they slammed down
Was gonna touch me

I though that if I did one or two things right
I might rise above all that business
The way each morning
While I stamped my feet
In the frozen Sea line Freight Yard
As sheets of light
Rose above the broken terminals of Lower East Side
Sheets of light
Rose above the broken terminals of Lower East Side

[Chorus]
But it didn't take long
For my hands to clench on their own
No it didn't take long
For the wind and the light
To blow out
Along the Hudson

I thought on days
There wasn't any work
If I had walked Battery Park long enough
Watching two rivers turn
Turn into each other
I might understand
What was ahead

[Chorus]
But it didn't take long
For my hands to clench on their own
No it didn't take long
For the wind and the light
To blow out
Along the Hudson

And I thought
The Spanish I heard spoken all night
Was just a song a city sang to itself
To soothe the sleep of a girl
Beside me
And I remembered
A story about an old man who lies
Besides a sleeping girl
And listens to the dry rustle of his heart

[Chorus]
But it didn't take long
For my hands to clench on their own
No it didn't take long
For the wind and the light
To blow out
Along the Hudson

I wore a flight jacked once
Torn open all one winter
'Cause nothing in New York City
Not the trucks I unloaded
Or the streets they slammed down
Was gonna touch me