Painting by Ruthie Kellar
(Follow the link to listen)
Oakland Street
Lyrics and music by Alex Kneen
I lay in bed as if the world’s benign
In this hundred year old house, on a street that never sleeps
Except for Sunday mornings when the church bells ring out
Loud and clear to mark the time
And their sound calls out
To the righteous and the sinner just the same
I listen to the rain fall from the eaves
And the sirens and the thumping of the music down the street
And I’m surprised that through the noise my little boys
Who’ve seen and heard too much can sleep
While the rain drops down
On the righteous and the sinner just the same
I’ve heard the guns explode just down the way
And the stories of the blood that’s always crying from the ground
But the silence of the loneliness says more than all the fights
Beneath these blinding city lights
Still the light shines down
On the righteous and the sinner just the same
And I am just the same
Oh Oakland street you’ve seen your share of the wealthy and the poor
And addicts who have died caught in their endless search for more
You’ve sheltered thieves and murderers and dealers and their whores
But you are just like every heart that’s entered in the door
Of this hundred year old house that’s seen it all
Here between the loss and all the hope we dare to hold
And I wonder if we’ll ever see the light, or feel the rain
Or hear the bells, on Oakland street
And my soul cries out
For the righteous and the sinner just the same
For I am just the same
Oh God, look down
Save the righteous and the sinner just the same
Cause I am just the same
Oh I am just the same
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