Toy Factory Fire

Here's Bart Simpson, with his arms all melted and twisted
And here's one of Big Bird, with his feathers all matted and black
And here are the rows of young women
Wrapped up in bolts of white nylon
And the families from the countryside come to take their daughters back

I look up from my desk as the light turns the Hudson to mercury
The rest of the office are getting ready to leave
But it's 10 years since the fire
The Toy Factory fire
It's going to be one of those weeks; I roll up my sleeves

They said it was a death-trap from a text-book
Fire Exits just painted on
Locks and chains to keep out the unions
And piles of white nylon all around

But we've built a dozen more to fill our orders
We've had to keep moving around
Since May 10th 1993
When the Kader Toy Factory burnt down

A fire in Thailand could be a bus crash in Africa
The stories weren't big; they did not make the six o'clock news
But the pictures were something else
They could have driven us down to hell
I knew this was a fight we couldn't afford to lose

CH

I look at the photographs once more in the Manhattan sunset
The same light falls on the one of my wife and my kids
Then I put them back in the file
Permit myself a smile
Keeping them hidden was the best work I ever did

‘Cause people like us, we do make the world better
And if it's better for us, it's better for everyone
I open the window to the rush hour sirens on West Street
I see the Power and the Glory all over this town
All over this town

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