Land Of The Living Lyrics - Lucy Kaplansky

Late afternoon back in New York town 

Waking up as the wheels touch down 

Pick up my guitar and walk away 

Wish I was going home to stay 

Line of taxis, I wait my turn 

Tar and asphalt, exhaust and fumes 

Beside the road on a patch of ground 

Taxi drivers are kneeling down 

Beneath the concrete sky I watch them pray 

While the people of the world hurry on their way 

I think they're praying for us all today 

And the stories that fell from the sky that day 

This is the land of the living 

This is the land that's mine 

She still watches over Manhattan 

She's still holding onto that torch for life 

Back home fire's still burning, I can see it in the air 

Pictures of faces posted everywhere 

They say, "Hazel eyes, chestnut hair 

Mother of two, missing down there" 

I pass the firemen on duty tonight 

Carpets of flowers in candlelight 

And thank you in a child's scrawl 

Taped to the Third Street firehouse wall 

There's shadows of the lost on the faces I see 

Brothers and strangers on this island of grief 

There's death in the air but there's life on this street 

There's life on this street 

This is the land of the living 

This is the land that's mine 

She still watches over Manhattan 

She's still holding onto that torch for life 

Then I got in a taxi, said, "Hudson Street, please" 

He started the meter and he looked at me 

I glanced at his name on the back of his seat 

And I looked out the window at the ghost filled streets 

I noticed cuts on his hand and his face 

And I said, "You're bleeding, are you okay?" 

He said, "I'm not so good, got beat up today 

And I'm not one of them no matter what they say" 

"I'm just worried about my family 

My wife's in the house and she's scared to leave" 

And I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to say 

But I said a prayer for him anyway 

This is the land of the living 

This is the land that's mine 

She still watches over Manhattan 

She's still holding onto that torch for life