Midnight in Manhattan

This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life (Our elected representatives are the frontlines of making the decisions About the war we're waging against terrorist And about rebuilding New York And there's nothing like it We don't want anyone to feel in a week or two or a month That the enormity of this somehow could be gotten over We can keep going and we will but...) Waiting for the snow to fall a cloudy angel wept And while the world was frenzied, by my fate I overslept Hold your breath, these acts are frozen and embraced With the gut-twisting feeling of a black and white mosaic Today Manhattan burned and summer leaves without a trace Besides a cloud of smoke and sour smell in outer space Without a face I hate you Today I was instructed how to hate but then remembered how to pray too I kneel enforcing nine commandments Scratch one and let it sleep on the crescent moon like a hammock Align the sky with fireflies and crooked-eyed soldiers The morning dew is fearsome while the Bush is iced over The cushions lie holding souls of man-made ghosts Cascades of darkness keep the lamp shades closed Crickets even whisper for September 11th I eavesdrop and hope to hear footsteps from heaven [ Hook ] When moonlight french-kisses the Manhattan midnight There's not a face without a tear drop that's in sight Midnights in Manhattan keep me dreamin I caught a dream by the tail, I think I'm gonna keep it This is the first time I've ever hated something through the night The first time I've ever loved this country in my life Hibernate for days and leave the nest to touch rain Stretch across the world and feel my bib of bloodstains Talkin to the icicles hangin from the clouds Purple moon dust vapor strangle for the proud I'm dyslexic reading minds of those computed Who saw an angel-kissed urban rose and chose to shoot it Notes for students of the Blitzkrieg, Polish torture I got a heaert for you that grows inside my olive orchard I understand a lot of spirits on remote control Mislead youth grew with charred and broken souls Damn I'm speechless, dreamin of the somber, sandy beaches Where I can drift away from suits and ties repairing demons Where I can fly from corporate crashed and buried kingdoms And hold my hand to God but do more than barely reach him [ Hook ] Blow a kiss to the rain clouds while I rest in bed If I give blood now I might have less to shed If I shed blood proud, is my spirit in agreement? Will I be dying for a reason that I do agree with? Freedom is a teardrop with legs like a centipede That walks out of God's eyes when I fight or sit and bleed I could sit stone-cold and panic in stride Plant it inside to hide away until the planets collide Of course, of course, of course, I grab my sleeping pillow And creep to steal to eat a still life self-reflecting weep and willow This is not the time for music, it's not the time for movement It's not the time for pushing all the people I'm unglued with It's not the time for birth of glory It's not the time for purgatory It's not the time for murder stories It's not the time for keeping peace or cleaning your knives It's a time to figure out the meaning of life And that's it [ Hook ]