Coming Up Lyrics - Imperfectly - Ani Difranco

Our father who art in a penthouse 

Sits in his 37th floor suite 

And swivels to gaze down 

At the city he made me in 

He allows me to stand and 

Solicit graffiti until 

He needs the land I stand on 

In my darkened threshold 

Am pawing through my pockets 

The receipts, the bus schedules 

The matchbook phone numbers 

The urgent napkin poems 

All of which laundering has rendered 

Pulpy and strange 

Loose change and a key 

Ask me 

Go ahead, ask me if I care 

I got the answer here 

I wrote it down somewhere 

I just gotta find it 

I just gotta find it 

Somebody and their spray paint got too close 

Somebody came on too heavy 

Now look at me made ugly 

By the drooling letters 

I was better off alone 

Ain't that the way it is 

They don't know the first thing 

But you don't know that 

Until they take the first swing 

My fingers are red and swollen from the cold 

I'm getting bold in my old age 

So go ahead, try the door 

It doesn't matter anymore 

I know the weak hearted are strong willed 

And we are being kept alive 

Until we're killed 

He's up there the ice 

Is clinking in his glass 

He sends me little pieces of paper 

I don't ask 

I just empty my pockets and wait 

It's not fate 

It's just circumstance 

I don't fool myself with romance 

I just live 

Phone number to phone number 

Dusting them against my thighs 

In the warmth of my pockets 

Which whisper history incessantly 

Asking me 

Where were you 

I lower my eyes 

Wishing I could cry more 

And care less, 

Yes it's true, 

I was trying to love someone again, 

I was caught caring, 

Bearing weight 

But I love this city, this state 

This country is too large 

And whoever's in charge up there 

Had better take the elevator down 

And put more than change in our cup 

Or else we 

Are coming 

Up