Painting

The President told the city to drop dead

And you're painting

"The block is blighted," the bankers said

And you're painting

The neighborhood is changing hues

You paint the colors that you choose

Brownstone, asphalt, black and white

You're painting

No one's safe from Son of Sam

And you're painting

Cunningham and Cage at BAM

And you're painting

Roe v. Wade, the national debt

King Tut mummies at the Met

And sometimes you forget

Just why you're painting

And the world is in disorder

And the center will not hold

And it takes a superpower

To keep the block under control

And nobody will see you

And the thing that you've designed

But they'll see the mark you've left behind

Peep shows in the old arcades

And you're painting

Spray paint Rembrandts, gay pride parades

And you're painting

Write your tag where they can see

Someday museums are gonna show me

Blackout, looting citywide

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

And how do you decide

Just what you're painting?

Headless body in a topless bar

And you're painting

Rachel left you where you are

Alone and painting

The President declared a war on drugs

Your son is going to school with thugs

The house is worthless, the broker said

You're stuck in Brooklyn, your marriage is dead

And anyone with a clue has already fled

And you're painting

And the world is in disorder

And the center will not hold

And you aren't a superhero

And you're feeling very old

And sometimes when you're painting

You put on one of her records

And it's like she never left

And the song is everywhere

The song is everywhere

And the block is Technicolor

And you're painting