The Chinatown Bus
Bishop Allen
The Broken String
NO CAPO!
Intro:
B, Bsus4,
I caught the bus in Chinatown and slept the whole way up I-95
The driver, cut and weaved so crazy, just his luck kept him
alive I guess I believed his rhythm on that morning after
New Year's Eve
And I remember Shanghai, how I wasn't sure just what was safe to
eat the chickens pecked and wandered at the barefoot ankles of the
children hawking figurines of workers smiling what's the Chinese
word for cheese?
Watched a sidewalk butcher his instinctive understanding made the
carcass snap and clarify beneath his nimble hand that held the
knife so long, so many times, the handle's changed to shapes just like his
fingers and his
palms
And I, I am a passenger tonight I watch the
world from
inside.
Interlude:
It's 2AM in Tokyo and still too soon to call back to the
people who will soon begin the day I polished off and I will
walk a mile amidst the neon lights that advertise I don't
know just what they
sell
I tell the taxi driver, "To the park Hyatt-o" And his
gloves are pristine white just like the girls I used to know would wear to
dance their first cotillion, every single one of them named
Jennifer
I clutched at the St. Christopher I picked up at some country abbey
long ago when I believed he'd keep me safe and make me happy
but it seems the luck he brings is not the common currency a
penny in
Japan
And I, I am a passenger tonight I watch the
world from
inside.
Interlude:
B, Bsus4
And I, I am a passenger tonight I watch the
world from
inside.
Outro:
B, Bsus4