Mortal City Lyrics

Dar Williams

She never should have rented this apartment in the Mortal City.
The cold comes though every crack she puts her hand up to.
The radiator's broken, so she has to use electric heat.

And tonight was the first date with the brother of the guy she worked next to.
He lived a couple streets away.
He listened, he had things to say.
She asked him up for dinner sometime.
Sometime was tonight.

The radio gave updates on the ice storm while she made the dinner.
They said, from all the talk, you shouldn't drive or even walk,
And this just in -- We're asking everyone to turn off their power.
They need it at the hospital.

She ran around pulling plugs, then she called him up.
Maybe now they shouldn't meet; he said that he would brave the streets.
She met him at the door with a blanket and a candle,
Saying, I heard it on the radio, I had to turn my power off.

He said you're not the only one, the streets were dark tonight,
It was like another century
With dim lamps and candles lighting up the icy trees and the clouds and a covered moon.

She said, what kind of people make a city
Where you can't see the sky and you can't feel the ground?

I tell you something, I have this feeling that this city's dying.
He said, it's not dying it's the people who are dying
She said, yes yes I think the people are dying and nobody cares.

We had all this technology our dreams were bold and vague,
And then one city got bad planners, one city got the plague.

He asked why did you move here? She said, for the job
For the job and I've been so lonely here, so lonely
There's no one I can talk to, you know I don't even know your brother.

He smiled and said, sometimes at night I walk out by the river,
The city's one big town, the water turns it upside down.
People found this city because they love other people
They want their secretaries, they want their power lunches.

And think about tonight, I heard the same newscast you did,
I unplugged everything, I looked out the window,
And I think the city heard, I watched as one by one the lights went off
So they could give their power to the hospital

They ate in silence while she thought this over,
They sat together in a dark room in the Mortal City
Shifting in their blankets so they wouldn't get spaghetti on them.

Then came the awkward moment after dinner, what to do,
The ice was still falling, the streets were still dangerous,
The cabs were not running and this neighborhood was not the greatest.

They both looked at the space where a couch would've been.
She felt her stomach sink, she felt like she could hardly think.

She said, I never should have rented this apartment in the Mortal City,
The cold comes through every crack I put my hand up to,
The radiator doesn't work, I have to use electric heat.

That settled it, they would both sleep in her bed,
It was a matter of survival.

She brought out teeshirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, socks, hats.
If there was ever any thought of what would happen in that bed tonight,
There was no question now.
They could barely move.
They were wrapped up like ornaments waiting for another season.

They lay in bed, they listened to the pelting ice
He said, my brother's not a bad guy, he's just quiet.
I wished you liked this city
She said, maybe I do.

I think I have a special kind of hearing tonight,
I hear the neighbors upstairs,
I hear my heart beating,
I hear one thousand hearts beating at the hospital,
And one thousand hearts by their bedsides waiting
Saying that's my love in the white gown,

We are not lost in the Mortal City.
We are not lost in the Mortal City.

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