All throughout the fall there were posters all over the subway imploring the public to come forward with any information that could lead to the whereabouts of a missing autistic child who, if I am not mistaken, had disappeared from a train platform. The posters had his picture, a description of what he was wearing when last he had been seen, and warned that he was non-verbal, which would make communicating with the child problematic. Sometime within the last couple of weeks, I read a short news item online reporting that remains had been discovered someplace in Queens (I think), that were believed to belong to the same child. Posters like this go up all the time in New York, and I can’t help but notice how seldom I hear, even in passing, of a resolution like the one I read recently. The teenage girl in South Slope? The elderly man suffering from dementia? I’m not sure if anybody knows what happens to these people in the end. The world is a cavernous place, with nooks and crannies that people can disappear into. It’s an unnerving concept considering how desperately people care about one another. Sometime it seems like the only thing to do is to be numb to the world, no matter how strange it gets. This is a song about that.
lyrics
Little’d we know
Thinking all of that time
Getting up close and personal
When we’re waiting in line
City lit up
City let go
City take a part of it
And bury it below
Of course I’m not feeling right
Of course I said it all before
Of course I thought of everything
It’s settled, I said it’s so
Of course I ain’t feeling right
Of course I said it all before
You know I think of everything
But little do I know...
Somebody ran out
Looking checkered and alive
Swinging cap-guns and counterfeit
Screaming run for your life
Not one of us thought
I think I’ll take that advice
Swallow shitloads of sedatives
Until we look at it right
Of course I ain’t feeling that
Of course it’s been a bloody week
Of course there’s more important things
It’s settled, I said it’s so
Of course I’m not feeling that
Of course it’s been a bloody week
And sure there’s more important things
How little can we know?
You can’t think of everything
You can’t look for everyone
You can’t stand for nothing else
It’s settled I, I said it’s so
You can’t think of everything
You can’t look for everyone
You can’t stand for nothing else
It’s settled, I said it’s so
You can’t think of everything
You can’t look for everyone
You can’t stand for nothing else
It’s settled, I said it’s so
You can’t think of anything
You can’t look for anyone
You can’t stand for nothing at all
It’s settled, and it’s so