Nighthawks

NIGHTHAWKS

where is Edward Hopper’s Diner
I’ve been searching for it before the sun came up
just want to sit there at the counter
and have the counter man fill my cup

been out all night walking the ghost streets
talking to my phantom memories
just want to get to sleep before morning light
steals all the air, left up in the trees

I’m looking for Edward Hopper’s diner
where the silence is unbroken, that’s the code
you can sit at a booth or a counter
where a teenager is gonna look old

at 5:00 AM the pulse is different
rats and garbage rule the city streets
even the drunks are mostly home sleeping
and the cabs and buses dance to an easy beat

I’m looking for Edward Hopper’s Diner
I want to hang my coat on the rack near the door
under the harsh fluorescent lighting
bouncing off the cold tile floor

I’ve been walking and I’ve been thinking
under the shadows of neon signs
thinking about what we do to each other
how we leave the water on the table
while we drink the wine

I’m looking for Edward Hopper’s Diner
I know it must be somewhere near
or maybe it’s on the other side of the city
I thought I knew but now it’s not so clear

I’ve been out all night walking
must have walked twenty miles or more
seen lights in some windows and night shift workers
walked over bridges past gated stores


now all I want to do is find that Nighthawk place
maybe have some toast on the side of some eggs
go to my room and pull the shade down
when the sun comes up be asleep in my bed

but first I need to find that diner
I don’t know why, I think that I belong
silently two seats from the girl with red hair
with her empty eyes that have just been wronged

maybe it’s in a different city
and maybe it only exists somewhere up in my mind
I think I saw it one time hanging on some museum wall
Maybe that’s why it’s so god damned hard to find