Winter Morning II (with Robert De Niro)

I remember the sound of the wind as I was falling asleep
The tree branches scraping the roof like people whispering
I arrived here one winter morning or maybe it was spring
I can't remember anymore
The mind plays tricks

Papa had just died two weeks before
The ground was frozen where they dug his grave
Mama left a note in my suitcase telling me
To do something that would make her proud
To be a good man

There were so many winters

I came here because I wanted a home
Where I can find peace
Where I can be treated like anyone else
Where I can be anyone I want to be

There it wasn't always empty

They all had to come down here
People would line up here,
Holding their suitcases and their children
Holding on to them for dear life
They were young people and old people,
Families, not lots of them,
They were completely alone

They waited their turn to reach the guard at the end of the hall
The guard would stamp your book and say
"Go over there"
"And welcome"
I was one of them
When I got here I went into a huge room
Doctors asking me these quick questions
A doctor comes to me and tells me
"You've got to go back"
I say "Back where?"
He says "Back where you came from"
I said "I've got to go to New York, I come for a new life"
He says "No, you can't"
"You go to 'back home'"

And I fight him
He doesn't listen, he says "Five minutes" and walks away
I grab my suitcase and
I went and hid in the closet behind all these dressing gowns
And when it was dark, I went and hid somewhere else
And somewhere else

I stayed where nobody could find me
And a week became a month

I had only one thing in mind
One place to be
Like you could fly if you had the wings
You could swim there if the current wasn't so hard
Lots of people try
And I tried lots of times to get there

I even tried to swim once but I only made a little way

One night I met somebody else
She was hiding too
So we hid together
Living at night
And we talked about what we would be when got to the shore
What our lives were going to be like

And one day she didn't wake up

So I took her body and put it in the water and ...
Watched it float to where she wanted to go

And I was alone again

I'm sorry, it was so close

There were all these millions of people who come through here
And I see them all
People of every color, shape and size
And I think about all those people who did
All of those that made it
Made it to some distant shore
Where when they come up the beach
Or over a bridge or around to a road
They start to walk
And they start walking faster and faster
Then they are running
They made it
They were at last home

But don't get me wrong
I'm the ghost of all those who never got to get there
And the ghost of those who will never get there