The Rag Fire of Houston Street

Lyrics

[VERSE 1]
Houston Street, late seventies, before the avenue had its name
Wooden walls and a tin roof, a rag-house in the rail yard's frame
Bales of cotton scraps stacked tight, oiled rags in burlap drape
The kind of fuel that doesn't ask for permission to escape

[CHORUS]
And the rag fire took the warehouse, took the tin roof, took the floor
Took the ledger and the cotton and the hands that shut the door
Now it's just a parking lot beside the brick that we restore
The asphalt knows it's standing on a fire that came before

[VERSE 2]
A spark from a welder, a current in the wall
A pile of oily linens in the corner of the hall
Five minutes from a curl of smoke to flames against the sky
Sampson Street watched it go — nobody saw it die

[BRIDGE]
A captain on the rooftop, calling for the line
A pumper from Number Nineteen rolling down the spine
Of the same rail spur that brought the cotton in
Now it carries water for the place where it has been

[CHORUS reprise]
The rag fire took the warehouse, the wooden bones, the door
The asphalt knows, the asphalt knows, what was here before

[OUTRO — spoken/sung Pope]
And we paved it. We paved the scar.
And the cars came in — and the cars don't know.