Emerald Street

Pregnant teens on the Barton street bus

Hard-up people living off crust

And there's a beat-up town car - it's starting to ruse

Hard soles are kicking up dust

Half a million people living in the corpse of the brown brick 50's

To the north, all the small town outcasts are now big city bourgeoisie

All the boys in the halfway houses

Wave to the girls of Emerald Street

Our calloused fingers, blood red on the brick - but we hold on

We'll never falter, though they want us to slip - we hold on

The desperate, downtown stealing bikes

Drunks in the village are picking fights

So, police like the streets to read them their rights

No controlling hot summer nights

The sun goes down on the edge of town, at the end of everyday

We sit and watch the stacks, on fire, to the east across the bay

All the boys in the halfway houses

Wave to the girls of Emerald Street

Our calloused fingers, blood red on the brick - but we hold on

We'll never falter, though they want us to slip - we hold on

There's something in the church belfry

On the corner of Victoria and king

And it screams out into the night

It sings this city's plight

All the boys in the halfway houses

Wave to the girls of Emerald Street

Our calloused fingers, blood red on the brick - but we hold on

We'll never falter, though they want us to slip - we hold on