The Gaslight Anthem

orphans

Goodbye circus wheel
May you rest along the seas
Well I've given you the fire of my youth
And the triumph of my enemies
And goodbye to fairweather 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
And we were orphans before
We were ever the sons of regret

My baby
And on and on and on
How the alphabet boys carry on
We were orphans before
We were ever the sons of the songs

And now my lights, they never go down
The watch the moon and 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
So I left you to find my very own hat for the rain

And the lonesome understand
With the choirs in my head
And we were orphans before
We were ever the sons of regret
My baby
And on and on and on
How the alphabet boys carry on
We were orphans before
We were ever the sons of 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 mirror of 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
And we were orphans before
We were ever the sons of regret
My baby
And on and on and on
How the alphabet boys carry on
We were orphans before
We were ever the sons of your songs
My baby

When we were young
We were diamond Sinatras
like something I saw in a dream
We kept our secrets and rules
Locked up tight like a tomb
Where violent dreamers lay