The Saddest Cab In Town
(P.Mark)
From the album Metropolitan Swamp
Working to live or living to work
It’s a crapshoot in your mind
I started to hack ‘cuz I had no knack
For wearing ties and smiling all the time
Each night’s the same old car
A heap of dents and misfit parts
I drive the saddest cab in town
Coulda used a break or two
Instead of breaking my back all the time
Thought by now I’d be driven somehow
Instead of driving for nickels and dimes
Now every dollar I save
Another day I lose
Losing’s just a talent for missing clues
Coulda used a kind word or two
Instead of words that were kinda used
Thought by now she’d have come back some how
Instead of backing away from the truth
Now every shift I drive
Another night we lose
I drive the saddest cab in town
Every siren’s a broken heart
Every headlights a missing plan
Every fare’s the same question
“Ain’t this life driving you mad?”
Tips are good
If you say what you should
Hook ‘em fast, reel ‘em in slow
There’s a 10-minute limit on friendships
And two doors for slamming arguments closed
The meter ticks off two bits
For each dream that had ‘em fooled
Inside the saddest cab in town
Joke with the whores who lean on my doors
While waiting for the light to change
“Don’t laugh,” they say, “All jobs are the same
Some just go by a cleaner name”
On a good night we all laugh together
In bad times, the words ring true
Truth’s the only drug I’ve ever abused
Coulda used a break or two
Instead of too many heartbreaks to count
Four a.m. and I’m struggling again
Ain’t a fare on the street to be found
All alone your mind runs astray
To the night when you called it a day
And fill’er up for the very last mile
And your soul rises above the city
In a breath of manhole-cover steam
Till then I drive the saddest cab in town