Nineteeth Street Blues

I’m just sitting on my doorstep

In this dreary part of town

Playing the Nineteenth Street Blues.

My pathway lights have been bashed out

My car’s been vandalized

I daren’t let my children out to play.

We’ve called the cops too many times

And now they just don’t come

I guess they think that folks like us don’t count.

I park my car and hide inside

My baby at my side.

Out on my street I know that danger’s near.

We’re tied in knots with mortgages

We can’t get free of that

The house is great, it’s just the neighborhood.

And selling’s not an option now

Who’d want to buy this place

With neighbors like we have across the street?

So I lift my voice in plaintive note

That no one wants to hear.

Crying my Nineteenth Street Blues.