Hollywood Park - The Airborne Toxic Event

A73−581 was the number, they burned it in my brain

I could feel it in my veins

We could run, we could run, we could run

We were running away

And the fourteen dollars I made on the bus ride from Chino

I laid on the third

He was due and I was due

For a change, for a change, I’m tired of living a lie

And they were writing their names up in the sky

And we would watch them as they brought the horses by

And I felt like I was ready to die

When the bell went off and the races would start at Hollywood Park

For fifteen years I had lived in a room with my heart on my sleeve

My throat dry from heaving the words:

You can change, you can change

If you’re ready to try

And we would laugh as the horses thundered by

And I would tip my brand new hat up to the sky

And nothing could come between you and I

As the horses ran wild through the dark at Hollywood Park

And when they tore it down, there was wrecking sound

And it rattled through my bones

And a cry went out through the streets that night

‘Cause we knew we’d lost our home

And there’s only the wreckage and this dirt still on my hands

And the roar of the ghosts as they stood up in the stands

Where do we go?

Who are all of these voices I’ve never heard?

And what becomes of us now?

Buried in concrete and broken earth

As I stare out from the highway at these miles and miles of graves

Under convenience stores and corner malls, all the countless roads they paved

I wonder if it’s lucky, or if you just forget the cost

Or the price of the admission for all endless bets you lost

In fifty years I will dream of this moment from a bed

Tired from lifting, my legs tired from drifting around

Through the dust, through the dust

In all the time that I would spend

But I never claimed I knew how it would end

Or the order of the horses at the bend

All I knew is I would be back again

And we’d stand here as the world fell apart

At Hollywood Park