Orphans

Goodbye, circus wheel May you rest along the seas Well, I have given you the fire of my youth And the triumph of my enemies And goodbye, fair weather home And your faithless factories I have given you the blood and the truth From the wounds that they laid on me And whatever they left I kept it for my own heart And the lonesome understand with the choirs in my head We were orphans before we were ever the sons of regret, my baby On and on and on, how the alphabet boys carry on And we were orphans before we were ever the sons in the songs And now my lights, they never go down They waltz the moon and the stars for me now So you can find some local libertine To take your daughters out on the town And I can feel it in my aging bones How the sound of the rain mixes up Into the fountains where I drank my hero's blood And so I left you to find my very own hat full of rain And the lonesome understand with the choirs in my head That we were orphans before we were ever the sons of regret, my baby On and on and on, how the alphabet boys carry on And we were orphans before we were ever the sons in the songs And now I'm trying to keep it straight Learning all the streets and the alleyways And learning where they lead now that I'm left alone here to drive But it's so hard to stand on your own Against mirrored glass hot and cold But the clothes I wore just don't fit my soul anymore No, the clothes I wore just don't fit my soul anymore And the lonesome understand with the choirs in my head We were orphans before we were ever the sons of regret, my baby On and on and on, how the alphabet boys carry on And we were orphans before we were ever the sons of your songs (my baby) And when we were young, we were diamonds not jewels Like something I saw in a dream We kept our secrets and rules locked up tight like a tomb Where the ballerinas lay