If/Then - A Map of New York Lyrics

Think of each plaza, pier, and public park
How many sit there empty, lonely, dark?
Think of it for tomorrow's sake
Think of how you and I can make our mark

You and I, we can draw a brand-new grid
Everything you dreamed of as a kid
Give it a year and go with me
Soon enough you will say, 'look what we two did'

You've always had the right dream
We've always made a tight team
Now at last you're back exactly where you ought to be
So let's make a map of New York, you and me

Twenty-two Reed
A building, sidewalk shade
Now a memory that for Beth will never fade
And I could be planning city sites
Where memories just like this one might be made

Thirty-three Bond where I wrote my first book
Greenwich and Moore where I learned how to cook
The Center Street courts, I interned there
The joy of this job is everywhere I look

That market was my first job
That diner was my worst job
And everywhere around me are these lives I left behind

The tunnel where I laid (?)
The co-op where I made my first sale
They make a map of New York in my mind

Put a sticker on the map where you landed that first day
Put a pin on the (?), on the bridge, on the train, on JFK
On the street where I swore I'd afford a place someday

Every avenue and place
Every building every face
Of the lovers and the friends
The beginnings and the ends
Make a map of NYC
Where I live and who I'll be
And you'll find me

And you're feeling adrift, alone, apart
And suddenly life will somehow start
And a map of New York is written on your heart

I'm too old for all that shit
You'll be told I'm selling out
Then again, all these years, did I lose what I'm about?
On the street in the cold it's so hard to fight that doubt

Then you hear the tunnel hum
With the train about to come
And you surface to the street
Where you fall into the beat
You can trace the line to me
On a map of NYC
Right where I should be

Think of how human life will ebb and flow
People, and how they'll come and how they'll go
Remember the things we hoped and planned
Remember them and believe them
And you'll know
You'll know

We never walk a straight line
We never trust a street sign
But it's in the detour that we truly find our way
We always know the way home
As long as we can stay here we're home

And we make a map of work
And we make a map of play
And we make a map of New York every day

Ending the night and Twenty-Third and Third
Liz and her date who's hanging on each word