Treehouse in the City

Words and Music by Christopher Kent

Living in the heart of New York City, in a small apartment high above the street
Books and posters line the walls, voices shouting down the hall
The rhythm of the traffic like a distant jungle beat…
Sometimes the walls seem to close in around me
And it feels like there’s nowhere to hide
But when I climb out through the open kitchen window to the fire escape
A different world is waiting on the other side…

Lazy summer afternoon, the sun shines through the leaves
In the middle of Manhattan in a courtyard full of trees
Sitting on my fire escape four stories in the air
Birds and squirrels and flowers, plastic grass beneath my chair
Hidden by the branches from the concrete, cars and steel
My thoughts a million miles away, a breeze is all I feel
Who’d have ever thought a city view could be so pretty
Sitting in my treehouse in the city

Some days my best friend and I sit here amid the morning glories
We laugh and talk for hours, sharing dreams and crazy stories
Other times I sit alone and watch the day go by
You never know just what you’ll see out here beneath the sky
There’s a squirrel who’s hanging by one toenail upside down
I don’t know what he’s thinking, 40 feet above the ground
Just one of those crazed New Yorkers, showing off his nitty-gritty
Better than a Broadway show, my treehouse in the city

I’ve always felt so much at home living in the city
The freedom, the adventure, an evolving state of grace
But now and then I need to be reminded where I came from
To look up at the sky and feel the wind upon my face

Crickets start singing as the evening rolls around
The buildings block the sunlight, the breeze is calming down
Smells of people cooking dinner, laughter in the distance
The beauty of this moment wears down my resistance
Pretty soon I’ll have to go inside, cause life goes on;
But there’s no rush—I’ll wait until the light is gone.
These are times of peace and joy I’ll always carry with me
Remembering my treehouse in the city
Remembering sitting in my treehouse in the city