When It's Gone It's Gone - Carrie Newcomer

The New York Central Railroad was something in her day

A million tons of coal and steel must have passed this way

The ghost of some old engineer

Walks this earth and you might hear

When looking down on all those lights

«Could I see your ticket please?»

When it’s gone it’s gone

But the echoes just go on and on and on

We send it out like our breath

And somebody takes it in, somebody takes it in

Someone

In the age of possibility, cheap gas, John Glenn and tube TV

When Martin walked many miles to stand beside Gandhi

But faith was stoned with cans and rocks

And the neighbor kid came home in a box

Now we don’t believe so much of everything we hear

When it’s gone it’s gone

But the echoes just go on and on and on

We send it out like our breath

And somebody takes it in, somebody takes it in

Someone

Tomorrow’s just too far to see

To far to know to love or grieve

Every action is received

Like a legacy

It is our legacy

Route 26 was open fields and I remember when

Now every town I pass on through

Has the same outer skin

How could he sell his father’s bones

The others did but he just won’t

He says «When I am dead you can take it all

But for now just let them graze.»

When it’s gone it’s gone

But the echoes just go on and on and on

We send it out like our breath

And somebody takes it in, somebody takes it in

Someone