The heart of our city
Is not the Arch
Or the Loop
Not even our history keeps us going on
Why should we focus on what's already gone?
No, it's the people, the growing, changing, churning lives
They build and they yearn and they burn and they strive
They struggle with problems
They celebrate feats
They beat down cracked sidewalks with weary old feet
They dredge through summers, in hot, humid heat,
They clap along to every blues rhythym beat
Its these people that built this city from the ground up
They've achieved beauty, but it's still not enough
It seems that somethings always in the making
A different city upon every waking
But yet the core still stays the same
Soothing, but not quite tame
Grand, tall buildings over which yonder dawn breaks
Your eyes drink it in with every breathless breathe you take
And it transforms in the night
Another dazzling sight
Of a different make
Bright neon lights of theatres, clubs and bars
Comparable only to that morning's star
And the music, oh the music that runs through our veins
The music of joy, the music of pain
The pain of this city, it lurks in the dark
It's shadows in corner, gunshots from afar
The child so sick, the woman so old
The family that can't afford heat in the cold
The breaking of glass, the echoes of screams
These are a few of my least favorite things
For these are the sounds that rip hearts at the seams
That rob little children of innocent dreams
But we stitch ourselves together
We put our children back to sleep
We break, we hate, we yell, we weep
We don't hold anything in
We let everything go
We don't wonder what if, we revel in what we know
So we get up, and brace ourselves for me
After all, we've survived so much before
"And what of your structures?" people may say
The places we love, the places we stay
I could tell you of our great museums, courts and halls
Small and tall, I love them all
But it's not baout columns, bricks or walls
It's about the people
The people who under these roofs do dwell
The liveliness that makes this city swell
But despite it's grandeur, splendor, it's beauty
Without all the people, they'd be shells, they'd be empty
We've got passion inour blood
Work on our minds
No matter how others change through the time
We are not perfect
We're not always right
But at least we have the strength to fight
We're all bits and pieces, all different souls
And if you stitch them all together
You get one patchwork whole