Edit Your Hometown

An outcry
 To lost dreams and a 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 it's 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