Lyrics

IN THE CITY
The place that I come from has only one city
The traffic lights through the windshield were festive and pretty
Christmas shopping at Zellers and Sears when I was a kid
I dreamed someday I’d live there, and for two years I did

My mom cried, and Lady Di died the day I left for college
Where I stayed up too late writing papers and faking my knowledge
Of philosophy, history, lectures that I had slept through
I had only enrolled just to say I had something to do

I would walk through the wind and the snow of a winter Park Lane
See the spring garden flowers grow in the Spring Garden rain
The streets named for trees were a forest to me
With no one to hear when I fell
In the city that hid me so well

A twenty-four hour IGA grocery store
A two-bedroom apartment above that I couldn’t afford
Video Difference, suspense, drama, and horror
Like the night I called cops to bust into a locked bathroom door

Where a scorned former boyfriend unbottled his feelings inside
Talking madness and swallowing sadness to make it subside
I tried to be cool and calm but I was terrified
When they took him away I can’t even say if I cried

I collected my thoughts, called collect from a public pay phone
For my regular check-in and chat with my mother back home
I was too stubborn to tell her that I was in trouble
I pretended I only saw rainbows from inside my bubble

I would walk through the wind and the snow of a winter Park Lane
See the spring garden flowers grow in the Spring Garden rain
The streets named for trees were a forest to me
With no one to hear when I fell
In the city that hid me so well

Like a daisy making its way through a sidewalk crack
The love of a friend called my heart and my heart called him back
He would walk through the Commons alone at 3:30am
With a sandwich he’d stolen, bologna or PB and jam

A confessional booth at a Wendy's with burgers and fries
We shared our mistakes over milkshakes and untied our lies
He had flunked out of school, a secret he’d carefully covered
There and then we decided that we’d rather study each other

We would walk through the wind and the snow of a winter Park Lane
See the spring garden flowers grow in the Spring Garden rain
The streets named for trees where he walked next to me
With no one to hear when we fell in love
In the city he loved me so well