The bridges are all closed  The cars both ways are stalled  If the wrong voice answers the question  The parole board gets a call  The operator's lucky  A very lucky girl  The welfare's rising steadily  And housing starts are down  Auto sales, dismal  This is a shrinking town  The police are oh so busy  And why not  Well the crisis wasn't the Gulf  Or the lack of steady heat  But unfolded in the canyons  And the pits of old Wall Street  It happened on a Sunday  Do*Do*Run*Run  An orchestra continued  To perform Pete's Pathetique  It's too bad that the museum  Well it up and died last week  I saw a lovely painting  "Ships Upon the Bay"  It sent a chill through the system  I sent a letter through the mail  I sent some kids to foreign places  I sent a mother off to jail  It was such a silly notion  It surely had to fail  The last one called  In the middle of the night...  -----------------------------------------