Story Behind The Song

feelings of a person post 9/11, when on the surface everything seems to be fine, and it's not. She cannot sleep because he is not there.

Song Description

the undercurrent of what goes on at 3.00 am in midwinter when someone can't sleep. the semi-sleep state with the imagination wandering through town.

Lyrics

?The City Sleeps? Meryl Leppard June 2005

Snow is falling on Bryant Park
Gusts of powder flurry
It doesn?t know quite where to land
And swirls in nervous worry
Dreamy pools of yellow lamplight
Are showing up the tear
That?s on my sleeve

The library, like an ancient beast,
Huddles on its corner
Fortitude and Patience,
Lions that guard its border
Survey their stretch of real estate
And grant their human subjects a reprieve

The city sleeps
It slows its breath
Restores some hope
One little step
The city sleeps
Wrapped in its dreams
Hovering on the edge
Of in-between
The city sleeps
At least for now
Slumbering under quilts of reassurance
that the world seems safe and sound

Three a.m. the plough machine
Sweeping all before it
Scraping Gotham?s arteries
Dangerous to ignore it
Steam pipes opening candy mouths
Belch their mother load
into the street

Mannequins in window scenes
are draped in winter glory
hollow chests and empty eyes
advertise their story
this ragged coat?s seen better days
and slush is seeping through
to my aching feet

the city sleeps
it slows its breath
while some are born
some slip to death
another night
with dreams to weave
tumbling in the land
of make believe
the city sleeps
at least for now
holding onto some vague and naïve notion
that the world is safe and sound.

All the statues in the park
Come alive after dark
Climbing down from podiums
Respite from the tedium
Of holding strange and tortured poses
Banked by cultivated roses
They hold their meetings on the grass
Mutiny is brewing fast
How am I supposed to sleep?
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
I used to sleep
Draped in your arms.

I used to sleep
Why can?t I sleep?