The Vancouver National Anthem - Matthew Good

Out of the alleys, our needle strewn fields

Into the sunlight that the brochures reveal

Like snakes come for rabbits and rabbits for meals

Where the oar and the axe flies

Well this is our story (stick to it) but it ain’t the truth

Cause the truth’s just for liars that need an excuse

Around here love’s a gangster and charity’s the proof

Where God deals on Sunday’s under a rain burning roof

It’s five blocks a universe and aliens for each

Like invisible ghettos of priviledge and grief

And pinned up between them the carrion fly

Living off skeletons of recycled lives

This is the place you find out

Well this is the way you find out

We all live downtown

Pay two even, no parking

Live with a clown

Step over ourselves

We all live downtown

Pay in blood, no parking

Sleep on the ground

Step over ourselves

We all live downtown

We all die downtown

Step over ourselves

Well this is our story (stick to it) but it ain’t the truth

Cause the truth’s just for liars that need an excuse

For a king crown a banker, the queen crown a noose

Like heirs to a graveyard where the dirt’s always loose

It’s five blocks a universe and aliens for each

Like invisible ghettos of priviledge and grief

And pinned up between them the carrion fly

Picking off skeletons under a big northern sky

This is the place where you find out

Well this is the way you find out

We all live downtown

We all die downtown

Step over ourselves