The Seat Right Beside Me

(back)                                                                                           (listen / download)

Everything I know tells me not to go
Not to walk away just as you wave to say thanks
It’s all that I can do to move my heavy shoes
Up to East 105 with my heart in my hands

And the words in the eyes of the girls and the guys
That I pass hoping each will be you
They say “run to her now, you fool, sing her the sound that you
Hear when she walks in the room”

Now the moon it is rising, the stars they are shining
And as slow as the autumn was winter’s unwinding
But now that it’s empty the uptown and I, we both
Make believe like you’re still riding in the seat right beside me

I still can’t believe all the things you see
With a glance you can make the room dance on a dime
As if you wrote the book and painted all the looks
On the 8 million faces all frozen in time

And it’s barely past midnight so I think I just might
Hold out for the end of the line
Because when we turn around to head right back downtown
Just the cars, the conductor and I

Watch the moon as it rises, the stars when they’re shining
And as we start moving the winter’s unwinding
But now that it’s empty the downtown and I, we both
Make believe like you’re still riding in the seat right beside me

Okay so it won’t all be flowers and sunshine
And sometimes we’ll hurt and we’ll laugh through the tears
But you’re pretty tough and I’m not bad myself
So I stand here before you saying Happy New Year

By now there’s a subway car headed to Queens
And my northbound just let out a sigh
Because even the train knows it just ain’t the same
And the tracks all lead back to one moment exact

When the moon it was rising, the stars they were shining
And to my surprise it was winter unwinding
But now that it’s empty the uptown and I, we both
Make believe like you’re still riding in the seat right beside me

 - December 2014 -                                                                                  #085