Lonesome Child

How are you my lonesome child?
Haven’t seen you for awhile
How have you been getting on these days?
Last I saw you, you were broke
Out on the street, we barely spoke
Seems you and I are always parting ways
Then you went off the rails and I went straight
I remember when we met
It was way back when in Lafayette
You were on that timber-cuttin' crew
I was at the college then
Didn’t dance with working men
But thought I’d like to take a stroll with you
We wandered by the riverside
Watched the dogwood blossoms glide
Down the river heading out of state
Seems like that was you and me
Pulled along reluctantly
Never had much time to stop and wait
Then you went off the rails and I went straight
I won’t pretend I loved you all the while
We were kicking up and down the line
But now and then I think about your smile
Lord I wonder could I have eased your troubled mind
I moved out to Pensacola
You were playing rock and roll
Down in Tallahassee with the band
I waited for you once backstage
Then I had to turn that page
Hanging round was more than I could stand
Ten years and a thousand miles
Lived in Newport News awhile
You worked out of Norfolk hauling freight
Cooked me gumbo that July
Don’t know why we said goodbye
Seems you and I we’re always just too late
You went off the rails and I went straight
I won’t pretend I loved you all the while
We were kicking up and down the line
But now and then I think about your smile
Lord I wonder could I have eased your troubled mind
Now you’re back and look at you
Once they threw the book at you
Now you’re sitting pretty after all
Guess I should have known you’d slip
Out the back and through their grip
And find yourself a pleasant place to fall.
Ten years and a thousand miles
Adds up pretty quickly, child
But I’m not much inclined to contemplate
All I know is how I cried
Every time we said goodbye
Seems you and I we’re always just too late
You went off the rails and I went straight