Running away downtown
Seeking to get away
Away from myself
Needed to slow it way down
Good to have a wander
Put what I have to do on the shelf

Baby, when I got there
All I had to do was put my foot outta the door
As soon as I hit the street
People were pounding their feet
Looking for something to eat

I kinda put my collar up
Hands in the pockets as I hunched up the top of my spine
My eyes were all looking down
That's when I found the round thing on the ground

Ran away downtown, found a nickel
Ran away downtown, found a nickel
Ran away downtown, found a nickel for free

I looked at it in the sun
Something was funny 'bout how the heck it felt in my hand
I squinted my eyes from here
In the glare from the sun
I could barely make out the year
One thousand, Nine hundred and seventy-five
The year when my body officially became alive
Was a fetus in seventy-four
That's a little bit more
Funny, never thought that before

Ran away downtown, found a nickel
Ran away downtown, found a nickel
I cannot blame it on the year I was born

As soon as I dropped it in
A guy comes up toward me
With a desperate look in his eyes
He looks me up and down
Then says with a frown
"What are you? Some sort of clown?"
After making fun of me
He shows me his I.D.
As if that gives him authority
Asks me to share some change
In a moment of shame, I lie
and say I've got none to spare.

Ran away downtown, found a nickel
Ran away downtown, found a nickel

Anyway, I kept wandering 'round
Wasn't quite sure what I wanted to make out of this night
At one point I heard a sound
In the back of a car was a woman and a child barely born
She rolled the window down
Tried to speak
A trickle of water, it fell down her cheek
I looked in my pockets then
All I had was the nickel
Me and my hand handed it over

Ran away downtown, found a nickel
Ran away downtown, found a nickel
I cannot blame it on the year I was born.