Lyrics Puma Perl Music Joe Sztabnik

End of the World

It’s the end of the world Beginning on Grand Tall skinny girls, yogurt stands Pop-up galleries, indie bands End of the world beginning on Grand

It’s not the East Village, it’s the Lower East Side Where my father was born, where my grandmother died She was coming up the steps on East Broadway

Lyrics Puma Perl Music Joe Sztabnik

End of the World

It’s the end of the world Beginning on Grand Tall skinny girls, yogurt stands Pop-up galleries, indie bands End of the world beginning on Grand

It’s not the East Village, it’s the Lower East Side Where my father was born, where my grandmother died She was coming up the steps on East Broadway Never made it to the top, I pass it every day My kids can’t live where they used to play The old disappeared and the new have their way

The end of the world Beginning on Grand

My father was born on Avenue C I always lived east of the DMZ Copped my bags on the Mighty D When Avenue B was the place to be Avenue B was the place to be

It’s the end of the world Beginning on Grand Pop-up galleries, Yogurt stands Five-dollar coffee, indie bands End of the world Beginning on Grand

Now there’s a Holiday Inn on Delancey Street Used to be a place where the junkies’d meet If you didn’t come correct you were gonna get beat Now there’s a Holiday Inn on Delancey Street A Holiday Inn on Delancey Street

It’s not the East Village It’s the Lower East Side Good Friday processions Chinese French fries Projects bodegas Speakers on the sills Kids in wheelchairs Fire drills

Now, it’s the start of a new world Beginning on Grand Forget about the coffee and the yogurt stands Those tall skinny girls and their indie bands We’re gonna start a new world Beginning on Grand

And it’s not the East Village it’s the Lower East Side Where my father was born Where my grandmother died…

puma perl, 05/14/14

Lyrics by Puma Perl Music by Joe Sztabnik

Lyrics

When you’re walking down East Broadway carrying a bright red tote containing four library books and a small Trader Joe’s bag with a metal colander in it and your phone, keys and wallet are safely tucked away and you stop to look at a photograph of a neighborhood artist you might get punched in the

Lyrics by Puma Perl Music by Joe Sztabnik

Lyrics

When you’re walking down East Broadway carrying a bright red tote containing four library books and a small Trader Joe’s bag with a metal colander in it and your phone, keys and wallet are safely tucked away and you stop to look at a photograph of a neighborhood artist you might get punched in the head by a guy about 5’7 wearing wraparound shades and a multicolored hoodie.

Probably your own fault. Your mother always said you read too many books.

When you’re walking down East Broadway and you get punched in the head an older man tells you to calm down it’s okay that you got punched in the head and a younger guy fiddles with his phone and says he didn’t see anything and your own phone is so safely tucked away that you can’t take a picture of the guy in the hoodie who looks over his shoulder when you what the fuck at him and rounds the corner onto Jefferson Street while the older man makes sssssh gestures with both his hands.

Probably your own fault. For being a woman who stops to look at photographs and takes her eyes off the road.

After the guy punches you in the head you tell yourself you should have chased him you should have clocked him you should have hit him with a book you should have hit him with a colander you should have carried mace instead of a book and a colander you should have been able to reach your phone.

Probably all your own fault. Because you didn’t train like a ninja because you’re not Princess Leia because you didn’t hear him come up behind you because you stood so close to too many amps because you had crushes on bass players who always wound up with other girls anyway because you didn’t marry anyone and now you lack the invisible protective shield of somebody’s arm across your shoulders.

After you get punched in the head on East Broadway you are convinced to file a police report and the officer who takes the report is too nice to be competent and has the same name as your former dentist and a NY Mets pitcher and the detective is the same age as your son.

And Victim Services calls and you hate the world “victim” And the detective calls and says it’s a crime against the “elderly” and assures you that you don’t look elderly and you hate the world “elderly” and then it turns out it’s filed as a misdemeanor, sort of like stealing a red lipstick from Rite Aid.

Probably your own fault. You should have provoked him to hit you harder. Then at least he’d be charged as a felon.

© puma perl, 10/23/21

Lyrics-Puma Perl

Music and Guitar-Joff Wilson

Violin-Walter Steding

SEPTEMBER BLUE (AFTER MARIA)

Blue perfection Reflections of love and disaster

Puerto Rico Drowning

I remember standing on the beach The horizon healing me teaching me what I always knew, through hopelessness, through joy

I’m a hard to place child, forever adopted, embraced by La

Lyrics-Puma Perl

Music and Guitar-Joff Wilson

Violin-Walter Steding

SEPTEMBER BLUE (AFTER MARIA)

Blue perfection Reflections of love and disaster

Puerto Rico Drowning

I remember standing on the beach The horizon healing me teaching me what I always knew, through hopelessness, through joy

I’m a hard to place child, forever adopted, embraced by La Isla

I still hide from my chosen families But Puerto Rico You came the closest with your 6:00 darkness, your morning runs over the bridge through Old San Juan El Yunque Dropping my walking stick Rolling down hills White pants Mud covered laughter

Dancing to El Gran Combo Meaningless love affairs Unforgettable friendships Shrimp mofongo Pinoñes lunches Dogs wandering between our legs, napping under the long tables El campo Pigs on sticks Straw hats

The steps of Gurabo Iridescent fish Catamarán to Culebra Coral beneath the water The road to Humacao Horses trotting beside us Patrolling the projects La Perla

Photos of Juliet in El Morro Every year Second grade to nose rings Flying with Gladys First class upgrade

Home more than home Saved by the sky Meeting the ocean Under September blue La Isla We cry and fight every day for you

puma perl, 10/25/17