Side Streets

The porches on the side streets
All remind him of those nights
A sky
Black sky

Chased off the roofs of fancy hotels
Where they gave fake names
Ghost names

Then they’d slink back to bars
For drink and reverie
And they’d sing
How they’d sing

Oh it’s been a long time
Such a very long time
Oh it’s been a long time
Such a very long time

He dares himself to walk down
To the cemetery walls alone
Alone

There in the graveyard arе granite stones
Bearing brokеn names
Ghost names

And a cheap cross
That’s wrapped in plastic
Stopping the rain that falls
How it falls

Oh it’s been a long time
Such a very long time
Oh it’s been a long time
Such a very long time

He spent the night in the shade
Of lindens rotten underground
But soft
But soft

And though he scares himself bad
He stays
Yeah, he stays
Until the first morning light

The long walk home
In the dead of dawn
No breeze
Cloudless sky

There by the door
He sees some children
Dancing in the street for joy
And he sighs

And they’d sing
How they’d sing

Oh it’s been a long time
Such a very long time
Oh it’s been a long time
Such a very long time

And now it’s gone away
And now we've gone away
And now it's gone away

The thinking keeps him up
All through the night
He writes it down
A song
Ghost song