Elmhurst Queens Mother’s Day

Sun is coming up over the bay
Everywhere everything has changed
The only sound is wind in the trees, New York City’s far from me
Sun is coming up over the bay

Friends back home tell me nothing is the same
That city symphony just stopped that day
The crowds, the life, the energy
Are just sirens now through empty streets
My silenced hurting city far away

These days there is no work for me
And I don’t know if there will ever be
As remote lives keep moving on, I sit down to write this song
In this refuge from that storm far away

And it’s far away, far from me
Far away from me

Then I read about a nurse’s day in Queens
In cotton scrubs, she is the infantry
Trenches painted in fluorescent light
Weaponless soldiers in the fight
I read about a nurse’s day in Queens

She’s wearing the only mask that she can find
She knows that they will all get sick in time
She’s telling the writer all the things they need, with the president lying on TV
Her oath was not for her family to die

Endless lines of those who won’t be saved
Dying in plastic chairs as they wait
When she gets home won’t hug her kids
Writes her will like her friends all did
Falls asleep in her living room chair again

I’m making dinner, sun is going down
Sun will be setting over New York town
They’ll be cheering soon on my empty street
A brief reprise of that symphony

In the city where I became a wife
Where my mother was born, where I’ve made my life
And though i won't be there to cheer along
Oh, I can sing this song
For that nurse, and for my city, my home