Market Square

Following the river southward
There beside the old abandoned line
Freight trains roll as engineers would
Pound along the bottomland in vain to run on time
Sometimes in the darkness of a late night on the road
You still can feel it running side by side, its mighty load
Now reeds and rushes grow

The train gets to the station
Market Square is silent waiting for the sun
The boys are home from overseas
Now mothers sleep and lovers feel the joy of what's begun
Out beyond the shuttle yard, the brakeman passes by
Checks his pocket for the time another day will rise
A newborn baby cries
And the years have learned to fly

The night is streaked with neon light
The sky's betrayed for miles
The dealers and the needy vie
For space out among the aisles
Don't take your love to Market Square
You'll surely be received
Into the arms of emptiness
Where youth is never retrieved

The headlights pass to mark the time
The weeks turning into years
The seasons change unnoticed
Mirages come and then disappear
Don't take your love to Market Square
Where shadows are drawing the lines
Between the home that waits for you
And the contact you're looking to find

Don't take your love to Market Square
The darkness and the cold
Springtime's cadence marches on
But the roses never unfold