down the darkening street

I have seen my fortunes fall, rise, and fall again
I have walked the painted line to where the highway ends
tunnels burrow through the earth burrow through the pain
rumble through the underground the rumor of trains

let me show you what we’ve built, staggering and steep
let me show you where we live, where we hunker down to sleep
let me show you this city deep and incomplete
let me show you where your heart goes down the darkening street

I have heard her poetry the clash of ice and fire
dots and dashes intermittent sparks that crackle on the wire
twisted steel the dust of years swirling in a gyre
the bric-a-brac of broken dreams in the pathways of desire

she was once my love my muse ghost-like in the mist
now I know, now I admit, that she does not exist
this towering tree, this tenement, this isle of rocky schist
what is real, what is true, what images persist

Music and lyrics © Brian Rose