New Guy To Look At

(album: Small Things - 2021)

Today you're the guy to look at on the subway
You're the guy falling asleep all bent over
Bad news caught in your throat like a cold
I guess today you got the call about the clicker
The Doctor says get cracking, ante up sez he start telling time

Yesterday it was the guy with the cane
Looking sideways, dragging his stump
Today straight against the map
Head touching all the way to Manhattan
I can't barely see Staten Island
(Yesterday it was the guy with the cane
Looking sideways, dragging his stump
Today's cane's beaming
Sitting tall on the bench
Back straight, back straight against the map
Head touching all the way to the tip of Manhattan
I can't barely see Staten Island)

Yep, lotta eyes on me today
Just not the ones in the square brown glasses with the black scarfing their head
Those eyes are shut tight
Couldn't open 'em with a crowbar
Well, maybe if you got in there below the chin
Where the line comes down straight like the don't-step crack in the sidewalk
That the lady with the pink baby and the guy in the fake French hat
Saw in the Darwin thru May sign

The crack the headphone guy hears
In the 12th bar of his blues
The crack we saw in the Prospect Tunnel
When the light went out
The crack I tripped on today
When I stepped on some trouble