I imagined New York City, in my mind she stepped inside,
picked up the phone, and cried aloud,
we try to make life pretty, but when violence tears a heart in two
and throws it on the ground, then there’s no doubt we’re
living in a broken world, don’t simplify it,
broken world, don’t sanitize it, please,
there’s nothing clean about it,
living out our broken lives, our hands are tied
when someone dies for nothing,
don’t talk to me about the will of God…

And I imagined all the people that they knew, that they would
ripple through, like circles on the water,
and times like this, there’s no right words to say, they seem too commonplace,
to touch the pain of any son or daughter
living in a broken world, don’t simplify it,
broken world, don’t clarify it, please,
there’s nothing clear about it…
living out our broken lives, our hands are tied
when someone dies for nothing,
don’t talk to me about the will of God…

I imagined New York City, though she got the news in Jersey
at a house out by the beach,
we try to make life pretty, and I try to grasp the whole of the this,
but every time it slips beyond my reach…
still living in a broken world, don’t simplify it, please,
there’s nothing sane about it,
living out our broken lives, our hands are tied
when someone dies for nothing…
is there any mercy here,
no single one of us is strong enough to draw it near…
once there was a child, so hard to explain,
someday there’ll be a child again, so hard to explain