CURBSIDE MONUMENTS

One by one, the buildings get taller Rent goes up,

but the checks get smaller Cardboard palace underneath the bridge Luxury towers

looking down from the ridge Winter comes and there's nowhere to go

Blue lights flicker on the pavement below Everybody says,

“It won't happen to me” 'Til the landlord changes the locks for

a fee

Walk around, don't look down

Keep your eyes on the pretty side of town

If you don't see them,

they don't exist

That's how you make a problem disappear

Curbside monuments,

standing in the rain

Everybody passes but nobody knows their name Curbside monuments,

covered up with dust You can build a million homes But you

can't build enough for us

Shopping cart rattling down the avenue

Everything they own fits inside a few

Mama wraps her baby in an old hotel sheet While somebody's penthouse

has a marble entry

“Get a job,” says the man in the suit While his empty

apartment sits three blocks from the route There's a vacancy sign glowing

bright upstairs

But there's nowhere for the people sleeping downstairs

They don't want to see us

They don't want to know

They only want the sidewalks Looking pretty for the show

So if you see a person Don't see a problem first See

the name, see the family

See the life

beneath the dirt

Curbside monuments,

standing in the rain

Everybody passes but nobody knows their name Curbside monuments,

covered up with dust You can build a million homes But you

can't build enough for us

Curbside monuments, don't look away We're not stains you can wash from

the pavement We're not numbers on a city report We're the people

you abandoned

When you locked the doors

One by one

The buildings rise

One by one

They close their eyes

And underneath the streetlights We're still here.