There's no sun and no starlight to shine on the rails

The spray-painted words of the prophets have failed

Down in this tunnel, there's no day or night

Up above it, darkness or light

It's all just a dream, I wake up and I'm back

Where the wheels of reality screech down the track

The ride is the moment they're all waiting for

Can't afford to believe that there's more

I can't kid myself into thinking there's more

And he lives in the suburbs and he carries a phone

I watch him arrive and I'll watch him go home

He'll pitch me a quarter as he stops to change lines

He'd stay, but he never has time

Would he stay if he ever had time?

So hold my eye

While the rest of the city flies by

The tips and the tokens you left me today

Are the price of my ride on the subway

And I've seen drowning hobos and rich men who pass

Reflected in fragments of Boston-bound glass

And I'll be Jimmie Rodgers, The Cure, or The Who

If it makes any difference to you

Does it make any difference to you?

So hold my eye

While the rest of the city flies by

The tips and the tokens you left me today

Are the price of my ride on the subway

They're the price of my ride on the subway

They're the price of my ride on the subway