| Well, once I knew a railway girl
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| Her age was 17, I gave her all I had to give
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| But the baggage of my dreams
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| Stole me from the games we played
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| Scorned me for my mask
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| And if she’s gone she lingers on
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| I beg you please don’t ask
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| Twas on a dark March evening
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| South bound I did ride
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| My head was out the window
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| When I found her at my side
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| Asked where I was goin' to
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| I told but where I came from
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| The jails in which I’ve done my time
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| I fail hard to regain
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| Dark girl, dark girl it kills me so
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| To watch you so afraid
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| You know that you’ve been real to those
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| And realness should be paid
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| Her eyes gone wide, alive she cried
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| Does pleasure ever last?
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| We live to see but patiently
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| I beg you please don’t ask
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| She took me in despite my sins
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| Fed me tea and such
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| And as she fell just like a child
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| I crumbled 'neath her touch
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| I held my breath and appeared to weep
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| At the fragments of my brain
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| See each day’s but a moment lad
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| I fail hard to regain
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| But as it goes the fiddler throws
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| Our values to the street
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| Whole world pain and sayings
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| As gay as impatience in his field
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| And captives of this Wall Street trade
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| We curse our mortal tasks
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| Forgive us though we all must go
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| And where to please don’t ask
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| And now I am a misspent man
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| Who knows not where he’s been
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| And oh so sapped with sufferin'
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| The worst is yet unseen
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| Renounce myself for further wealth
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| I take each breath in vain
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| Still haunted by that railway girl
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| I fail hard to regain |