Hey, Little Songbird - Anaïs Mitchell, Greg Brown

Hey, little songbird, give me a song

I’m a busy man and I can’t stay long

I got clients to call, I got orders to fill

I got walls to build, I got riots to quell

And they’re giving me hell back in Hades

Hey, little songbird, cat got your tongue?

Always a pity for one so pretty and young

When poverty comes to clip your wings

And knock the wind right out of your lungs

Hey, nobody sings on empty

Strange is the call of this strange man

I want to fly down and feed at his hand

I want a nice soft place to land

I wanna lie down forever

Hey, little songbird, you got something fine

You’d shine like a diamond down in the mine

And the choice is yours if you’re willing to choose

Seeing as you’ve got nothing to lose

And I could use a canary

Suddenly nothing is as it was

Where are you now, Orpheus?

Wasn’t it always the two of us

Weren’t we birds of a feather?

Hey, little songbird, let me guess

He’s some kind of poet and he’s penniless

Give him your hand, he’ll give you his hand-to-mouth

He’ll write you a poem when the power’s out

Hey, why not fly south for the winter?

Hey, little songbird, look all around you

See how the vipers and vultures surround you

They’ll take you down, they’ll pick you clean

If you stick around such a desperate scene

See, people get mean when the chips are down