Is the Grass Truly Greener on the Other Side?

The song that I will be defending as poetry is ¨Pulaski at Night¨ by Andrew Bird from his album ¨I Want to See Pulaski at Night¨. This song is just one of the many tunes that I´ve shazamed for and added to a play list of mine. From my research Andrew Bird has used the phrase "Pulaski at Night" before in some of his tunes. He explained in a live show that Pulaski Road on Chicago's west side isn´t pretty, and the idea of someone saying "I want to see Pulaski at night" stuck with him. It´s not something he could imagine anybody wanting to do

To me the whole song has the same tone, as the city of Chicago. I see it as a conflict between thoughts of a perfect Chicago, and his sadness for the current city. No doubt, Chicago is one of the great cities of the US, but as you look deeper, all you notice corruption. If you walk downtown, you get a sense of success, "Horns of plenty, coffers full" but visit the outskirts and you´ll see despair.

I write you a story,
but it loses its thread,
and all of my witnesses,
keep turning up,
turning up dead

Is an experience with himself, where he is struggling to deal with opinions of Chicago. He'd like to tell a positive story of the city, yet people are dying left and right. This is also likely an allusion to Chicago's mafia mentality that is around today.

I paint you a picture,
but it never looks right,
cause I fill in the shadows,
and black out the,
I black out the light

Is how he sees Chicago. There is so much wrong that it's easy to block out the better parts. Stating Chicago is the worst of the city would be wrong. Although, there is no corruption that seems to stand out. This shows Birds nostalgia.

He mentions "Pulaski at night," relating the song to nightlife no one would want to see, and then refers to Chicago as the ¨City of Light¨, which is the opposite of seeing the nightlife of Pulaski. Pulaski represents everything but a ¨City of Light¨. But in the end, it is his hometown, and he'll always "Come back to Chicago.