6B Panorama

[Intro]

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

[Verse]

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

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, cashing their 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 dames

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 Similac, 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 talents

I see a crack in the sidewalk

A slide show of sick civilians gripping bottles like idiots

Sitting inside bent meridians

There's a fun house ooh, a sun spout

Spraying yellow beams above yellow back dreams

And children in the hydrants

Hybrids, I see sirens

The wall to the glamor standard

A dead bird, a red curb

A bus stop where commuters wait to have their souls towed off to work

I see the slapdash habits of bike messengers pausing

To huff that good leaf on the way to damage packages for peddlers

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