New York Lullaby Lyrics Critique - Australia

by Geoff Anderson
(sydney,NSW,Australia)

New York Lullaby is a true story that I was inspired to write after meeting "tommy", homeless since returning from the Vietnam war, in Washington Square Park in the middle of a bleak New York winter. He had been homeless and survived the streets for over 25 years.

See the young man wearing dirty old torn rags
but no-one hears him crying
Carries his life in two plastic shopping bags
His smiling face nothing short of lying
New York lullaby is ringing in his head
Can't sleep for lack of trying
Too many sirens, choppers screaming overhead
He knows somewhere someone is dying
BRIDGE
Heard it all before, when he fought in Vietnam
Now he fights his private war
Tommy will lay down to die and no-one gives a damn
'Cause he knows in his heart
God's sent his shopping cart to take hime home
CHORUS
He's going home
He's going home
God sent his shopping cart to heal his broken heart
And take him home

Buried in a pauper's grave, John Doe the headstone reads
No-one comes except the preacher
His life is over but his heart no longer bleeds
God sent his shopping cart, flew to his open arms