Mortal City

She never should have rented this apartment
In the mortal city
The cold comes through
Every crack she puts her hand up to
The radiator’s broken
So she has to use electric heat

And tonight was the first date
With the brother of the guy she worked next to
He lived a couple streets away
He listened, he had things to say
She asked him up for dinner sometime
Sometime was tonight

The radio gave updates on the ice storm
While she made the dinner
They said, from all the talk
You shouldn’t drive or even walk
And this just in
We’re asking everyone to turn off their power
They need it at the hospital

She ran around pulling plugs
Then she called him up
Maybe now they shouldn’t meet
He said that he would brave the streets
She met him at the door
With a blanket and a candle
Saying,
I heard it on the radio
I had to turn my power off

He said, you’re not the only one
The streets were dark tonight
It was like another century
With dim lamps and candles
Lighting up the icy trees
And the clouds, and a covered moon

She said,
What kind of people make a city
Where you can’t see the sky and you can’t feel the ground?

I tell you something
I have this feeling that this city’s dying
He said, it’s not dying
It’s the people who are dying
She said yes!
Yes,
I think the people are dying and nobody cares!

We had all this technology
Our dreams were bold and vague
And then
One city got bad planners
One city got the plague

He asked, why did you move here?
She said, for the job
For the job, and I’ve been
So lonely here
So lonely
There’s no one I can talk to
You know I don’t even know your brother

He smiled and said
Sometimes at night I walk out by the river
The city’s one big town
The water turns it upside down
People found this city
Because they love other people
They want their secretaries
They want their power lunches

And think about tonight
I heard the same newscast you did
I unplugged everything
I looked out the window
And I think the city heard
I watched as one by one the lights went out
So that they could give their power to the hospital

They ate in silence while she thought this over
They sat together in a dark room in the mortal city
Shifting in their blankets
So they wouldn’t get spaghetti on them

Then came the awkward moment
After dinner, what to do
The ice was still falling
The streets were still dangerous
The cabs were not running
And this neighborhood was not the greatest

They both looked at the space
Where a couch would have been
She felt her stomach sink
She felt like she could hardly think

She said, I never should have rented this apartment
In the mortal city
The cold comes through
Every crack I put my hand up to
The radiator doesn’t work
I have to use electric heat
And that settled it
They would both sleep in her bed
It was a matter of survival

She brought out T-shirts
Sweatshirts
Sweatpants
Socks
Hats
If there was ever any thought
Of what would happen in that bed tonight
There was no question now
They could barely move
They were wrapped up like ornaments
Waiting for another season

They lay in bed
They listened to the pelting ice
He said, my brother’s not a bad guy
He’s just quiet
I wish you liked this city
She said
Maybe I do

I think I have a special kind of hearing tonight
I hear the neighbors upstairs
I hear my heart beating
I hear one thousand hearts
Beating at the hospital

And one thousand hearts
By their bedsides waiting
Saying, that’s my love
In the white gown

We are not lost in the mortal city
We are not lost in the mortal city

-Dar Williams