walking down madison i swear i never had a gun no i never shot no one i was only having fun walking down madison swear i never had a gun i was philosophizing some checking out the bums see you give em your nickels your pennies and dimes but you can t give em hope in these mercenary times oh no and you feel real guilty about the coat on your back and the sandwich you had oh no from an uptown apartment to a knife on the a train it s not that far from the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement it s not that far to the bag lady frozen asleep in the park oh no it s not that far would you like to see some more i can show you if you d like to walking down madison i swear i never had a gun no i never shot no one wouldn t do it just for fun walking down madison trying to keep my head screwed on i was philosophizing some checking out the nuns when you get to the corner don t look at those freaks keep your head down low and stay quick on your feet oh yeah the beaming boy from harlem with the airforce coat the ones who died the ones who tried the ones that sit and gloat from an uptown apartment to a knife on the a train it s not that far from the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement it s not that far to the bag lady frozen asleep on the church steps it s not that far would you like to see some more i can show you if you d like to within every city and town there s a madison frozen lives for whom nothing s happening hungry children is a mother s dilemma dumpster diving to feed her baby emma so you walk on by like it doesn t affect you the held out hand that you pay no respect to nickels and dimes won t even buy your guilt another wino burnt to death in his quilt it s a cardboard city newspaper metropolis the system can t cope or keep on top of this the authorities come as you re not for display do they solve the problem no they move him away they re in a vicious circle of no fixed abode the social won t pay em the money they re owed when you ve got no money you can t pay rent hypothermia kills cause the system is bent from an uptown apartment to a knife on the a train it s not that far from the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement it s not that far to the bag lady frozen asleep in the park oh no it s not that far would you like to see some more i can show you if you d like to from an uptown apartment to a knife on the a train it s not that far from the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement it s not that far to the bag lady frozen asleep on the church steps it s not that far would you like to see some more i can show you if you d like to in the subway sits a vacuous man his grip on life is a bent tin can it s a holy shrine where he burns his light it makes things easy and removes his plight for an hour or two but he can t escape they re all penned in with government tape there are good samaritans who bring the soup the sally army with their bibles and boots you can see yourself as it s not too far one short trip you don t who they are till the night comes then it all comes back like the smell of patchouli and the armies of rats it s a shame to be human it s a human shame it seems we ve forgotten we re one and the same