Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign
First the city went to the dogs
And then it went to the cats
Great cats prowling the streets
Crossed at the crosswalks
Merged with shadows on Broadway
Invisible to almost every eye that dared look
Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign
Take the elevator to the seventh floor
With guns ready safety off
Enter the gallery
Pretend to look at art
Have a snotty thought
How does this improve the world?
Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign
Say something to the man in the vest
Are you the artist?
No Are you?
Leave with him
Take the island ferry
Talk in the stern by the wake
Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign
Talk about your life
Open your heart
Toss your cigarette into the turbulence
As if it were an old movie
Toss in your wallet too
Ask the man in the vest to show you his wings
Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign
As the lights of the buildings wink on
And the whole city begins to vibrate
And swell with a myriad of tiny voices
And the boat has stopped
And begins to rise like a great white riverboat
Now leap back to the earth
Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign
From the floating palace made of bones
Walk back to the city on the water of the bay
You don’t often get a chance
To walk on water filthy or not
But never doubt
Or the cats will pounce
Shoot before you get shot
Fly the coop and don’t be late
Make a beeline for the finish line
Duck the clothesline
Speed up at the stop sign