[Music & Words: Paul O'Neill]
In an old city bar
That is never too far
From the places that gather
The dreams that
have been
In the safety of night
With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come in
And the
snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The music was low
And the night
Christmas Eve
And here was the danger
That
even with strangers
Inside of this night
It's easier to believe
Then the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That
no one in the bar
Had seen there before
And he asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was
lost
Standing outside our door
Then the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze
Through the window and ice
To a
corner streetlight
Where standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl the child said
Could no longer get
home
And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The bartender turned
And said, not that I care
But how would you
know this?
The child said I've noticed
If one could be home
They'd be all ready there
Then the bartender came out from
behind the bar
And in all of his life he was never that far
And he did something else that he thought no one saw
When he took all
the cash from the register draw
Then he followed the child to the girl cross the street
And we watched from the bar as they
started to speak
Then he called for a cab and he said J.F.K.
Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away
And we saw in his
hand
That the cash was all gone
From the light that she had wished upon
If you want to arrange it
This world you can
change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who
needs help
You need only just ask
Then he looked for the child
But the child wasn't there
Just the wind and the
snow
Waltzing dreams through the air
So he walked back inside
Somehow different I think
For the rest of the night
No
one paid for a drink
And the cynics will say
That some neighborhood kid
Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they
hid
But they weren't there
So they couldn't see
By an old neon star
On that night, Christmas Eve
When the snow it
was falling
The neon was calling
And in case you should wonder
In case you should care
Why we're on our own
Never went
home
On that night of all nights
We were already there
THEN ALL AT ONCE INSIDE THAT NIGHT
HE SAW IT ALL SO CLEAR
THE
ANSWER THAT HE SOUGHT SO LONG
HAD ALWAYS BEEN SO NEAR
IT'S EVERY GIFT THAT SOMEONE GIVES
EXPECTING NOTHING BACK
IT'S EVERY
KINDNESS THAT WE DO
EACH SIMPLE LITTLE ACT