It's a sordid sort of feeling When you learn to live with spite. It's a desperate kind of living When you're burning up the night. Getting sick of all the drinking Getting sicker every day. Cause I can't say the things I really want to say I remember when Chicago seemed a million miles away I was chained by quiet longing on that Independence Day A month across the country built in all I learned from you I sang those thoughts away just like I always do. It's been an age, it's been an era, it's been a lifetime. But I'll remember every step I'll cross my heart when we cross paths across the country Please just remember I'm not the one who left And I never will All the aches and shits and quivers hurdle in with morning light And a somber sense of longing steals my breath and grips my spine I can feel the salty ocean suck the moisture from my skin And I know staying here will surely do us in And I walked on down to that lonely shoal, where my best hopes go to die I thought I will keep you in my pen, until the ink wells all go dry And I'll keep it like a secret every day