Old City Bar

In an old city bar
That's never too far
From the places that gather
The dreams that have been

In the safety of night
With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come in

And the snow it was falling
Neon was calling
The music was low
And the night Christmas Eve

And here was the danger
That even with strangers
Inside of this night
It's easier to believe

Then the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That no one in the bar
Had seen there before

And he asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Standing outside our door

Then the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze
Through the window and ice
To that corner streetlight

Where standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl, the child said
Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling
Neon was calling
Bartender turned and said, "Not that I care
But how would you know this?"
The child said, "I've noticed
If one could be home, they'd be already there"

Then the bartender came out, from behind the bar
And in all of his life, was never that far
And he did something else that he thought no one saw
When he took all the cash from the register drawer

Then he followed the child to the girl across the street
And we watched from the bar as they started to speak
Then he called for a cab then he said, "J.F.K."
Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away
And we saw in his hand, that the cash was all gone
From the light that she had wished upon

If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last

By helpin' a neighbour
Even a stranger
To know who needs help
You need only just ask

Then he looked for the child
But the child wasn't there
Just the wind and the snow
Waltzing dreams through the air

So he walked back inside
Somehow different, I think
For the rest of the night
No one paid for a drink

And the cynics will say
That some neighbourhood kid
Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they hid

But they weren't there
So they couldn't see
By an old neon star
On that night, Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling
And neon was calling
In case you should wonder
In case you should care

Why we on our own
Never went home?
On that night of all nights
We were already there