Edit Your Hometown

An outcry
To lost dreams and sense of wonder
To the streets that raised him
Say goodbye to the hope for the home he'd been holding
Say goodbye and be gone and be great
To the friends who left when they still could
For the ones who chose to stay to waste away unplaced

Alone, and pray
To get out
To grow old
To grow strong
And leave this city, so familiar
All its places

All these memories turn each day more to gray
More they space out till it's once a year we'll catch up, maybe less, or
Else just daydreams while he's working late
Thinks only of those friends and when they left
Are we still friends at all, my friends?

Can I leave?

Rewind and find a younger man
All hopes and goals and dreams alight
And bright with friendship at the crossroads in the night
Now make a choice, the city said

We were barely twenty then, but
While I swore it my allegiance
They chose leaving, all my friends
And now it's letters, maybe phone calls
That come less and less each year

All addressed with wives and children
To the fool who chose to stay here
And it hurts me to know I'm alone now
And it's worse when I know that I chose it
Don't make the same mistake as me
Don't make the same mistake

And now my friends have all left
Or it's been me gone all along?
I guess we all part one day
And drop like leaves into the breeze

(And ain't it wild?)
Ain't it bitter?
(Didn't it carry you from me?)
But it's the coping with my fear that keeps me here
See, once it's gone

(Do I regret you?)
You can't retrieve it
(Can I forget you?)
I still believe I might get left here
I might turn 63 still sweeping up the gutters in the street
Or weeding concrete

Wait and see
We'll wait and see
Or, rather, I will
Only me
Only me

Don't make the same mistake as me
Don't make the same mistake
Don't make the same mistake as me
Say goodbye

And be gone
And be great
And be done
And be free