i'm leaving this city before i'm frozen, before i'm stuck
here right in place.  the highway may be strewn with sin,
but it's proven again and again it's the only way i'm
saved.  oh Chicago, you're as cold as the heart of the
candidate the night of the inauguration, and like him i
don't expect you'll ever understand my situation.  i
know, like him, your heart don't break.  cause he grins as
he's promising the mess he's gonna make, an then he
offers you a handshake, saying, "no blood on my hands
today."  but when he grins, you see it's his teeth that are
bloodstained.  you told me once you were complicated,
but i never knew with you what to believe.  you say you
never give your tricks away for nothing, and you always
got something up your sleeve.  you say, "this circus has
three rings, and nobody gets in for free."  now your
pretty eyes, don't blink or i got nothing to look for.
your pretty hands, don't hide them in your pockets, or i
got nothing to reach for.  your pretty lips, don't turn
away.  don't pretend you got nothing to say.  now Mama,
she was a poet, and at night she'd recite her best verse.
but she said, "crumple this when i go and throw it
from the window of my speeding hearse.  i have it bad,
but you have it worse.  i had it bad, but you got it
worse."  and she said, "go out now, go out now to the
streets, girl.  you go out there now, write your own life-
story.  and you alone decide if it's gonna be a magazine
or poetry.  and your pretty eyes, don't blink or i got
nothing to look for.  your pretty hands, don't hide them
in your pockets or i got nothing to reach for.  your
pretty lips, don't turn away.  don't pretend you got
nothing to say.  you got a lot to say, you got a lot to say,
you got a lot to say."  and i wish always that i could
than you, but i guess i just don't know how, cause you
said the best thing i could do for you is take good care
of myself.  but you became a ghost before you wanted,
and now my heart is the home you've haunted, and
every time i hear the sirens sing, i feel footsteps inside
of me, like your heart beating, like my heart beating,
like your heart beating.