At the Union Square Greenmarket
Where the farmers sell their wares
From some fine organic sausage
To those purple heirloom pears
There a man with a dark story
A long time citizen of this town
Told me that's the place it happened
They shot Bobby Hollywood down
I was buying Brooklyn pickles
Made by a hipster out in Queens
Surrounded by my neighbors
In their hundred dollar jeans
But the man that caught my eye
Was the one who didn't care
About the cooking demonstration
Cause Bobby Hollywood died right there
There was this whole big world
Before the world we see today
And another world before that as the decades slip away
And I may be buying produce by Gandhi's weary stride
But where the tourists gawk and millions walk, a man lay down and died
They added up my purchase
Of my burdock and my ramps
And I put it my Trader Joes
Organic cotton bag
And I turned to hear the story
Of a man no longer there
Whose unfortunate demise it's said
Occurred in Union Square
There was this whole big world
Before the world we see today
And another world before that as the decades slip away
And I may be buying produce by Gandhi's weary stride
But where the tourists gawk and millions walk, a man lay down and died
But the teller of the story
Seemed to vanish in the crowd
Lost in trucker hats and strollers
Of the financially endowed
Like a ghost from somewhere far beyond
These perfect packaged lives
To remind us of another time
Just a trace of which survives
There was this whole big world
Before the world we see today
And another world before that as the decades slip away
And I may be buying produce by Gandhi's weary stride
But where the tourists gawk and millions walk, a man lay down and died