They tell me I've paid back the debt I owed
   Forty-four months since the slammer door closed
   They give me a suit and put me back on the road
   And my thoughts are racing
   Where do I go? What am I supposed to live on?
   What happens when the twenty-five dollars is gone?
   That leaves me lots of time to wonder why I was born
   But the countdown is on
  
   Everybody's dancing
   The music sounds entrancing
   But you can't find the beat
   It's the ticking of a thousand human time bombs
   Who are back on the street
  
   Oh the names have been changed
   But the story's the same
   History will repeat
   Add it all up and then divide it by zero
   'Cause you're back on the street
  
   I can't stand the strain of this job no more
   I must have forgot what I took it on for
   I make lots of money, yet still I want more
   And my head is blazing
   I think that I'll check out the shops downtown
   Sometimes it helps to buy things when I feel brought down
   At this hour I might dodge those hippie low-life's around
   But the countdown is on
  
   Once you had to stand out
   Looking for a handout
   Free love and body heat
   And that money's just a crumpled green b
   When you're back on the street
  
   Back on the street again
   Said you're back on the street again
   The countdown is on
   And nobody knows when
  
   Spreading like a cancer
   Looking for the answer
   In everyone you meet
   And each in his way has a hustle to play
   When he's back on the street