If I close my eyes
I can almost hear my mother
Calling “Neil, go find your brother,
Daddy’s home and it’s time for supper - hurry on!”

And I see two boys
Racin’ up two flights of staircase
Squirmin’ into Papa’s embrace
And his whiskers warm on their face.
Where’s it gone? Oh, where it’s gone?

Two floors above the butcher, first door on the right.
Life filled to the brim as I stood by my window
And looked out on those Brooklyn roads.

I can still recall
The smells of cockin’ in the hallways
Rubbers dryin’ in the doorways
And report cards I was always afraid to show.

Mama’d come to school
as I’d sit there softly cryin’
Teacher’d say: He’s just not tryin’!
Got a good head, if he’d apply it.
But you know yourself it’s always somewhere else.”

I’d build me a castle with dragons and kings
And I’d ride off with them as I stood by my window
And looked out on those Brooklyn roads.

Thought of goin’ back
But all I’d see are stranger’s faces
And all the scars that love erases
But as my mind walks through those places
I’m wonderin’ what’s become of them…

Does some other young boy come home to my room?
Does he dream what I did as he stands by my window
And looks out on those Brooklyn roads?