Help for the Helper

1988 Mark Cohen



(1) It's two in the morning, I'm sorry I woke you

These faces from work won't get out of my head

The rain's getting stronger, I just made some coffee

Let's sit here a while, then we'll go back to bed



I don't know how long I can keep going back there

My caseload's near doubled since Carolyn quit

This winter's a hard one, more people not working

And some of them desperate . . . and more of them sick



CHORUS: Won't you hold me and tell me you love me

Tell me I'm doing all right

If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight

If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight



(2) Today Wendy Harrison had her new baby

At fifteen, she looks like she's been through a war

She says now there's someone who'll just have to love her

I wonder how many have failed her before



And all of the others, some hungry, some crazy

The drifters, the drinkers, I know every one

They sit at my desk or they stand in the doorway

With eyes that are cold as a pale winter sun (CHORUS)



(3) Remember the days when I'd go to work smiling

The world was a challenge, we knew what was right

Now I see people no older than we were

With a job and two kids and no place for the night



And Sarah Mackenzie, she's well over eighty

A kid with a gun stole her check yesterday

I told her she was lucky that he didn't shoot her

Then I gave her a form, and I sent her away (CHORUS)



(4) The files on my desk look like mountains and valleys

Sometimes I imagine them covered with snow

I'd strap on some skis and I'd glide through the silence

And not have to think about what lies below



Outside the rain makes its own lonely rhythm

But in here your eyes and the coffee are warm

I'll try not to think about Wendy's new baby

Crying for love in the heart of the storm



FINAL CHORUS:

Won't you hold me and tell me you love me

Tell me I'm doing all right

Take me away from the pain of the day

And the children who cry in the night

If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight

If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight



@work @socialwork

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MC

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