(Lyrics by Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Litvin,

Music by Lucy Kaplansky)



Late afternoon back in New York town

Waking up as the wheels touch down

Pick up my guitar and walk away

Wish I was going home to stay



Line of taxis, I wait my turn

Tar and asphalt, exhaust and fumes

Beside the road on a patch of ground

Taxi drivers are kneeling down



Beneath the concrete sky I watch them pray

While the people of the world hurry on their way

I think they're praying for us all today

And the stories that fell from the sky that day



CHORUS:

This is the land of the living

This is the land that's mine

She still watches over Manhattan

She's still holding onto that torch for life



Back home fire's still burning, I can see it in the air

Pictures of faces posted everywhere

They say "hazel eyes, chestnut hair

Mother of two missing down there"



I pass the firemen on duty tonight

Carpets of flowers in candlelight

And thank you in a child's scrawl

Taped to the Third Street firehouse wall



There's shadows of the lost on the faces I see

Brothers and strangers on this island of grief

There's death in the air but there's life on this street

There's life on this street



CHORUS

This is the land of the living

This is the land that's mine

She still watches over Manhattan

She's still holding onto that torch for life



Then I got in a taxi, said "Hudson Street please"

He started the meter and he looked at me

I glanced at his name on the back of his seat

And I looked out the window at the ghost filled streets



I noticed cuts on his hand and his face

And I said "You're bleeding, are you okay?"

He said "I'm not so good, got beat up today

And I'm not one of them no matter what they say



I'm just worried about my family

My wife's in the house and she's scared to leave"

And I didn't know what to say

I didn't know what to say

But I said a prayer for him anyway



CHORUS

This is the land of the living

This is the land that's mine

She still watches over Manhattan

She's still holding onto that torch for life