[Verse 1] The streets in this part of town are all made out of dirt And there arent any streetlights for when I get up to go to work The road grader comes once in awhile to fill in all the holes And leave a ridge of gravel to trip me as I go There arent any sidewalks here, just ditches into yards And folks get kind of upset when youre walking through their lawn So I keep it on the roadway and try to move along If they see me when theyre driving theyll always blow their horn All up and down this street these houses all look the same In the greying of the twilight I cant recall a single name Of any of my neighbors or the faces of their kids Only the kinds of cars they drive and if their dogs are tied [Chorus] Walking in these shoes isnt as easy as youd like Dodging all the bricks that are breaking all my lights We all have to struggle and hold it as our truth Its about as special for me as it is for you [Verse 2] Now Im on the highway overpass waiting for the bus To take me to my job in a downtown office cleaning up The scraps of paper nonsense that the office workers throw Into waste bins full of chewed gum and empty cans of Faygo But I dont know who they are or even how they look I only know the jokes they have pinned up in their nook This one likes football, that one has a pup Heres one whos real messy and never picks it up I clean it up before they arrive and head out to my bus Or maybe ill stay downtown and get a little lunch At the diner near my job if I have some extra cash Or maybe Im too tired today so Ill go home to crash [Chorus] Walking in these shoes isnt as easy as youd like Dodging all the bricks that are breaking all my lights We all have to struggle and hold it as our truth Its about as special for me as it is for you [Verse 3] I keep all the doors shut to the other rooms in my house That I dont want to heat and no one lives here now But me and I dont take up very much space Just the front room with my bed and the kitchen and the bath Ill make a little supper and watch a little TV I usually feel too restless to find a book and read So I eat too many chips and drink too many beers And the evening drains away and I fall asleep in my chair Sometime on a weekend I think Ill visit a friend And remember all our old times and see how they have been But it feels like a lot of effort to explain myself again So Ill just wait and see if theyll visit me instead [Chorus] Walking in these shoes isnt as easy as youd like Dodging all the bricks that are breaking all my lights We all have to struggle and hold it as our truth Its about as special for me as it is for you [Verse 4] I woke up the next morning before my alarm could go off I was fuzzy from the beer and too tired to get up I tried calling in to my boss but she wouldnt answer her phone I cant afford to lose this job so I put some coffee on I pulled on the same clothes i had on the night before No one ever saw me anyway it never mattered what I wore So I locked the door behind me and I started on my walk Along my gravel street and downtown to my work
dodging, brick, struggle, walking, special