Land of the Living

Lucy Kaplansky

Late afternoon back in New York town
Waking up as the wheels touch down
Pick up my guitar and walk away
Wish I was going home to stay

Line of taxis I wait my turn
Tar and asphalt, exhaust and fumes
Beside the road on a patch of ground
Taxi drivers are kneeling down

Beneath the concrete sky I watch them pray
While the people of the world hurry on their way
I think they're praying for us all today
The stories that fell from the sky that day

Chorus:
This is the land of the living
This is the land that's mine
She still watches over Manhattan
She's still holding onto that torch for life

Back home fire's still burning
I can see it in the air
Pictures of faces posted everywhere
They say hazel eyes, chestnut hair
Mother of two missing down there

I pass the firemen on duty tonight
Carpets of flowers in candlelight
And thank you in a child's scrawl
Taped to the Third street firehouse wall

There's shadows of the lost on the faces I see
Brothers and strangers on this island of grief
There's death in the air
But there's life on the street
There's life on the street
(chorus)

Then I got in a taxi, said Hudson Street please
He started the meter and he looked at me
I glanced at the name on the back of his seat
And looked out the window at the ghost filled streets

I noticed the cuts on his hand and his face
And I said You're bleeding, are you okay?
He said "I'm not so good got beat up today
And I'm not one of them no matter what they say

I'm just worried about my family
My wife's in the house and she's scared to leave"
And I didn't know what to say
I didn't know what to say
I said a prayer for him anyway
(chorus)