On the Bus Mall

In matching blue raincoats Our shoes were our showboats We kicked around From stairway to station We made a sensation With the gadabout crowd And oh, what a bargain We're two easy targets For the old men at the off tracks Who paid in palaver and crumpled old dollars Which we squirelled away In our rat-trap hotel by the freeway And we slept in Sundays Your parents were anxious Your cool was contagious At the old school You left without leaving A note for your grieving sweet mother While your brother was so cruel And here in the alleys Your spirits will rally As you learn quick to make a fast buck In bathrooms and barrooms On dumpsters and heirlooms We bit our tongues Sucked our lips into our lungs Because we were falling Such was our calling And here in our hovel But I will not mourn for you So take up your make-up And pocket your pills away We're kings among runaways On the bus mall We're down on the bus mall Among all the urchins And old Chinese merchants At the old town We reigned at the pool hall With one iron cue ball And we never let the bastards get us down And we laughed off the quick tricks And the old men with limp dicks On the colonnades at the waterfront park As four in the morning Came on cold and boring We huddled close in the bus-stop enclosure enfolding Our hands tightly holding And here in our hovel We fuse like a family But I will not mourn for you So take up your make-up And pocket your pills away We're kings among runaways On the bus mall We're down on the bus mall