| Lyrics: | She never should have rented this apartment in Mortal City
The cold comes through every crack
she puts her hand up to
The radiator's broken, so she has to use electric heat.
And
tonight was the first date with the brother of the guy she worked
next to
He lived a
couple streets away
He listened, he had things to say
She asked him up for dinner
sometime
Sometime was tonight.
The radio gave updates on the ice storm while she
made the dinner
They said, from all the talk, you shouldn't drive or even walk
And this
just in - We're asking everyone to turn off their power
They need it at the
hospital.
She ran around pulling plugs, then she called him up
Maybe now they
shouldn't meet, he said that he would brave the streets
She met him at the door with a blanket
and a candle, saying, I heard it
on the radio, I had to turn my power off.
He said
you're not the only one, the streets were dark tonight,
It was like another century, with dim
lamps and candles lighting up the
icy trees and the clouds and a covered moon.
She
said what kind of people make a city where you can't see the sky and
you can't feel the
ground?
I tell you something, I have this feeling that this city's dying
He said,
it's not dying it's the people who are dying
She said, yes yes I think the people are dying and
nobody cares.
We had all this technology our dreams were bold and vague
And then one
city got bad planners, one city got the plague.
He asked why did you move here? She said,
for the job
For the job and I've been so lonely here, so lonely
There's no one I can talk
to, you know I don't even know your brother.
He smiled and said, sometimes at night I
walk out by the river
The city's one big town, the water turns it upside down
People found
this city because they love other people
They want their secretaries, they want their power
lunches.
And think about tonight, I heard the same newscast you did
I unplugged
everything, I looked out the window
And I think the city heard, I watched as one by one the
lights went off
So they could give their power to the hospital.
They ate in silence
while she thought this over,
They sat together in a dark room in the Mortal City
Shifting
in their blankets so they wouldn't get spaghetti on them.
Then came the awkward moment after
dinner, what to do,
The ice was still falling, the streets were still dangerous
The cabs
were not running and this neighborhood was not the greatest.
They both looked at the
space where the couch would've been
She felt her stomach sink, she felt like she could hardly
think
She said, I never should have rented this apartment in Mortal City
The cold
comes through every crack I put my hand up to
The radiator doesn't work, I have to use electric
heat.
That settled it, they would both sleep in her bed
It was a matter of
survival.
She brought out teeshirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, socks, hats
If there
was ever any thought of what would happen in that bed tonight
There was no question
now
They could barely move
They were wrapped up like ornaments waiting for another
season.
They lay in bed, they listened to the pelting ice
He said my brother's not a
bad guy, he's just quiet
I wish you liked this city
She said, maybe I do.
I
think I have a special kind of hearing tonight
I hear the neighbors upstairs
I hear my
heart beating
I hear one thousand hearts beating at the hospital
And one thousand hearts
by their bedsides waiting
Saying that's my love in the white gown,
We are not lost
in the Mortal City
We are not lost in the Mortal City |
