John Allyn Smith Sails - Okkervil River

By the second verse, dear friends

My head will burst, my life will end

So I’d like to start this one off by saying «Live and love»

I was young and at home in bed

And I was hanging on the words some poem said in '31

I was impressionable, I was upsettable

I tried to make my breathing stop

Or my heartbeat slow

So when my mom and John came in I would be cold

From a bridge on Washington Avenue

The year of 1972, broke my bones and skull

And it was memorable

It was half a second in, I was halfway down

Do you think I wanted to turn back around and teach a class

Where you kiss the ass that I’ve exposed to you?

And at the funeral, the university

Cried at three poems they’d present

In place of a broken me

I was breaking in a case of suds at the Brass Rail

A fall-down drunk with his tongue torn out

And his balls removed

And I knew that my last lines were gone

While, stupidly, I lingered on

Oh, but wise men know when it’s time to go

And so I should, too

And so I fly into the brightest winter sun

Of this frozen town, I’m stripped down to move on

My friends, I’m gone

Well, I hear my father fall

And I hear my mother call

And I hear the others all whispering, «Come home»

I’m sorry to go

I loved you all so

But this is the worst trip I’ve ever been on

So hoist up the John B. sail

See how the mainsail sets

I’m full in my heart and my head

And I want to go home

With a book in my hand

In the way I had planned

Well, this is the worst trip I’ve ever been on

Hoist up the John B. sail

See how the mainsail sets

I’m full in my heart and my head

And I want to go home

With a book in each hand

In the way I had planned

Well, I feel so broke up, I want to go home