walk along river-banks…Hudson…Mississippi…Chicago…lookin’ at the mystic…haunted…what lies at the bottom…i wander…

cities of sinners…goin’ down to the edge…crimes never washed-away…no matter how many times a preacher’s hand heals…not ‘nough…

New York…Chicago…St. Louis….misdeeds…misfortunes…prices paid for needs…wants…cravings at four in the mornin’…kept awake…not an eye shut…

get me to the river…i’ll cleanse a soul that’s been longin’ for years…stolen money…affairs at midnight ‘neath a hollow moon…lies told in diners…shelters…drunk tanks…dives…river take me in…swallow me whole…

choose a burial plot…The Hudson…Mighty Mississippi…The Chicago…know the shallow…know the deep…inviting…just a drunken dive away…

this is all i ask…tis all…

what lies at the bottom…
thousand souls like mine…