Mercy Street Blues

Just a beautiful memory, really

There’s a young man sitting at the end of Mercy Street 

He looks like he’s been through some sorrow

Like he knows he’s been beat 

With his back against the wall 

he's wondering if tonight is it

if this is when he falls 

and can't get up again 

“.. yeah, it’s a good day for it”, he whispers 

in the fragile, low voice 

Only those who's been breaking down for too long knows

 

He's heard the Lady Midnight call 

For so long now he doesn’t mind her love anymore at all

He looks up at the fading light 

At the tired starlings half asleep 

It looks like it's getting ready to cry and he knows 

this time he’s on the losing side 

Because no matter where he looks 

for some kind of hope of  some kind

It's like he's going blind and everything is cast in faded light

He knows he won't find it deep down inside so he doesn't try 

He’s just one of the raindrops now 

Waiting to fall

All the way down 

He leans his head back against the wall 

last thing he sees before he closes his eyes 

is a pale blue kite flying by 

and like a hollow man praying he whispers 

“Damn.. that’s a good way to say goodbye.” 

Around the moment he hits the edge 

right before he takes the last step 

a soft melody breaks the spell 

Turning him back from where he was standing 

and away from that lonely ledge 

Just a few chords calling out in loneliness 

A fragile voice carrying the weight 

of having heard the Division Bell

of having been there himself

of too many damn farewells 

of having been at the end 

of breaking down by yourself

Yeah, just someone who's been at the edge

and taken that leap of faith

A young viajero who's been lost inside himself 

and gotten back from where it all ends

Playing a broken down blues in a broken down way

because that's all he's got

Because that's the only way left

For him to pray

Yeah, he sings of the long road ahead

because he might've lost hope

but he still believes there is a way

for someone truly broken

to hang on another day

"On the Long Road when the sky is crying 

when the blues is playing and you feel like you’re dying 

Can’t buy your way out that with anything 

Yeah out on the long road ahead it's the only thing that stays 

when you thought you'd already given everything else away"

Yeah, for the long road ahead, 

there’s nothing you need to bring 

You see the long road ahead 

Is better walked without anything 

Yeah the long road ahead

Is best walked with just the blues to sing"

The young man opened his eyes 

and the nightlights on Mercy Street 

burned like firefly dreams 

and it seemed 

like it was reason enough 

to believe 

just a little longer 

And hey, on the long road ahead 

that’s all you need 

just a reason to believe 

a little longer 

To hold on

Author's Note

First draft.