Help for the Helper
(Mark Cohen)
(1) It's two in the morning, I'm sorry I woke you
These faces from work won't get out of my head
The rain's getting stronger, I just made some coffee
Let's sit here a while, then we'll go back to bed
I don't know how long I can keep going back there
My caseload's near doubled since Carolyn quit
This winter's a hard one, more people not working
And some of them desperate . . . and more of them sick
CHORUS: Won't you hold me and tell me you love me
Tell me I'm doing all right
If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight
If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight
(2) Today Wendy Harrison had her new baby
At fifteen, she looks like she's been through a war
She says now there's someone who'll just have to love her
I wonder how many have failed her before
And all of the others, some hungry, some crazy
The drifters, the drinkers, I know every one
They sit at my desk or they stand in the doorway
With eyes that are cold as a pale winter sun (CHORUS)
(3) Remember the days when I'd go to work smiling
The world was a challenge, we knew what was right
Now I see people no older than we were
With a job and two kids and no place for the night
And Sarah Mackenzie, she's well over eighty
A kid with a gun stole her check yesterday
I told her she was lucky that he didn't shoot her
Then I gave her a form, and I sent her away (CHORUS)
(4) The files on my desk look like mountains and valleys
Sometimes I imagine them covered with snow
I'd strap on some skis and I'd glide through the silence
And not have to think about what lies below
Outside the rain makes its own lonely rhythm
But in here your eyes and the coffee are warm
I'll try not to think about Wendy's new baby
Crying for love in the heart of the storm
FINAL CHORUS:
Won't you hold me and tell me you love me
Tell me I'm doing all right
Take me away from the pain of the day
And the children who cry in the night
If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight
If there's help for the helper, I need some tonight
Copyright Mark Cohen 1988)
MC
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!