The New York City I once knew

The Village my favorite

Everything new

Everything different

Just like me

Everything odd

And welcome

And free

 

The West Village

With gays

And lipstick and flair

And mohawks and purple and pink

Adorned in the hair

The smoke shops

The head shops

The stores for drag queens

With 15 size platform pumps

For trans with a dream

Tattoo parlors, a piercing or too

All you could want

Imagine for you

 

And you could be

The person outside

The person the world

Said put aside

Put away

Go away

New York City said

Welcome

New York City

Said stay

 

The East Village

The punk

The alternative

The grunge

The dirt and the grime

It colored the landscaped

Made a mark for all time

 

With the tiny apartments

Railroad style, room to room

Hang out on the stoop

Watch the people

Hang your gloom

 

It’s different today

The misbegotten have run

Run from the robots

From the gentrified sum

From the chant

Be like all of us

Be just the same

Or be left in the dust

 

New York City

New York City

Don’t ever betray

The people who loved you

Us folks on the fray

The people who made you

The haven for sin

The haven for love

A place to begin

A place to discover

Who you really are

Without a wide eye

Judging close, judging far

 

New York City

New York City

Be true to yourself

Love all of your dwellers

Even the ones damned to hell