Tom Meltzer There's a cold rain pouring off the Williamsburg Bridge The world's giving way beneath my feet Someone once said that you're lucky when you're dead You know sometimes I agree They're sweeping hot bottle caps onto the street There's a boy about 16 staring down With a sick little smile just to prove he's alive As he looks around for nothing on the ground Once his life was a prison but it burst at the seams When he found a way to leave his dreams behind Now he lives in a mist he hopes will leave him so numb That he'll die without a worry on his mind CHORUS I was walking through Williamsburg, taking it in Trying to keep the courage not to run When a boy left a bodega and he stepped in my path In his right hand was a gun He said, Give me your money and I'll leave you alive And he shook and looked discouraged while he talked And I tried not to watch him as he walked away But I noticed a spring in his walk CHORUS You only get one chance at everything on this Earth And everything you do you must redeem It's a hard sad life most people'd rather throw away On drinks and drugs and idle dreams I was sitting in my bedroom staring at an empty fifth The night was disappearing from my head When I had a funny thought and I started to laugh 'Cause I remembered what somebody said CHORUS