Cradle And All

Fourteenth street and the garbage swirls like a cyclone

Three o'clock in the afternoon and I am going home

F train is full of high school students

So much shouting

So much laughter

Last night's underwear in my back pocket

Sure sign of the morning after

Take me home

Take me home and leave me there

Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why

Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby

Feel free to listen

Feel free to stare

I live in New York New York the city that never shuts up

In the daylight everything is so gory

You can hear snatches of stranger's sorry stories

And I moved there from Buffalo but that's nothing

The TRICO plant moved to Mexico

Left my uncle standing out in the cold

Said there's your last paycheck have fun growing old

Take me home

Take me home and leave me there

Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why

Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby

Feel free to listen

Feel free to stare

Rockabye baby

In the treetop

When the wind blows

Cradle will rock

When the bough breaks

The cradle will fall

Down will come baby

Cradle and all

Youth is beauty

Money is beauty

Hell, beauty is beauty sometimes

It's the luck of the draw

It's the natural law

It's a joke

It's a crime

I was bored

You were bored

It was a meeting of the minds

Now it's three in the afternoon and I can't leave too soon

Saying thank you, I had a nice time

Take me home

Take me home and leave me there

Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why

Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby

Feel free to listen

Feel free to stare

Maybe I'll live my whole life

Just getting by

Maybe I'll be discovered

Maybe I'll be colonized

You could try to train me like a pet

You could try to teach me to behave

But I'll tell you, if I haven't learned it yet

You know

I ain't gonna sit, I ain't gonna stay

Take me home

Take me home and leave me there

Think I'm going to cry, I don't know why

Think I'm going to sing myself a lullaby

Feel free to listen

Feel free to stare