When I Was Last on Cherry Street

When you were last on Cherry Street,
the fifth floor walk-up tenement flat
You slept out on the fire escape above the stoop where old men sat
When you were last on Cherry Street,
your mother's newsstand by the shul
Is where you worked most everyday before and sometimes after school
When you were last on Cherry Street,
a parting letter told them not to fear
Having joined the Merchant Marines
and you would return some other year

You can go but you can't get back,
through the stormy times and when the sea is calm
I had a few hundred questions, about the way it was,
I guess I'll make it all up now 'cause you are gone.

When you were last on Cherry Street before the strike changed his fate
Your father pressed another cloak from way to early to way to late
When you were last on Cherry Street It was a hot wet sweaty night
You kissed a girl by the Manhattan
Bridge and stayed out 'til it was light
When you were last on Cherry Street
Where English was the foreign tongue
Your mother never learned to speak,
But from the temple walls the wise men sung

You can go but you can't get back,
Through the stormy times and when the sea is calm
I had a few hundred questions, about the way it was,
I guess I'll make it all up now 'cause you are gone.

When you were last on Cherry Street It was a noisy dirty place
The cobblestones had been paved over,
your mother's home had been replaced
When you were last on Cherry Street,
you know it might've been too long
Thought you were only driving through,
a ghost called out and sang this song