I was sitting on my fire escape and I saw...

sturdy bridges, decorated with dirty pigeons

a vagabond begging for three pennies and a princess

a junkie tourniquet surgeon urging the needle in

a batty senior citizen flashing that awful teethless grin

I saw a corner store merchant rest on a milk crate with a stog'

a pierced nose, a model with a stalker, cheap hooker, jay walkers

a table on a sidewalk with four old men slappin' dominos down

a city, a village, a neighborhood, a ghost town

I saw vandals catching tags and Puerto Rican flags

I saw a pregnant woman on the verge of bursting (boom)

I saw a blind man with a dog screaming "someday I'll see it all"

and then he sat down with his hammer and saw

business men with multi-colored ties, cashmere checks

a nazi with tattoos on his neck, a Vietnam war vet

a Caucasian man with a limp and a cane, a pimp with his names

a thug circus, a pack of shook tourists hugging their purses

I saw freaks with rainbow streaks in dayglo hair

a mother smackin' the grin off her child, replaced it with a stare

a pothole, a storefront with a broken open sign

a hole in the wall bar kicking drunks to the gutter, it's closing time

I see a fuck up, a bum knuckle up with a taxi driver

a squatter, a grandfather, an angry right-to-lifer

I can see the roof garden on the apartment across the street

and kick myself because somewhere along the way I lost my seeds

I see a rat, a roach, a bat approach, a happy student

a black man with a horn and a will to make you sit and listen to it

I see a little girl on the corner with bubbles, braids and barrettes

I see a teen mother with similak pacifier and regrets

oh, a day turned stale, a hammer with a rusty nail, a failed marriage

a universe of brick buildings slightly off balance

a challenge, I see a chance to add real colors to my favorite palette

raise my mighty mallet towards the gods and swing my talons

I see a crack in the sidewalk

a slide show of six civilians gripping bottles of gideon

sitting inside bent meridian

there's a fun house ooh, a sun spout

spraying yellow beams above yellow back dreams

and children in the hydrants

tyrants(?), I see sirens

the wall to the glamor standard

a dead bird, a bent curb

a bus stop of commuters waiting to have their souls towed off to work

I seen the slap dash habits of bike messengers paws

and hug that good leaf on the way to damaged packages, dependence

oh my lord, I see bandwagons, all aboard

a carnival amusement park where a heart is a luxury

I see a gas galaxy huddled behind those pearly doors

maybe I should sit up on my fire escape a little more