Goodbye to Old Friends - Stuart A. Staples

It’s not that I don’t love you

Or are tired of your ways

I want you to know

That’s I’m always thinking of you

You know I’d take you with me

Wherever I go

But I catch myself in the mirror

And I remember I gotta do something about my life

For I’m as empty as the clothes that I laid

Crumpled where they fell to the floor

I’m as empty as the ten green bottles

Hanging in my mind from the night before

And an ashtray full of moments

Spent thinking about the things I

Should have done

I say goodbye to another old friend

Yeah they stayed through thick and thin

Through the laughter and the tears

Through every state that I’ve been in

And I know they don’t wanna hurt me

But I can see it in their eyes

That they’re killing me so gently

How can I ever say goodbye

For as young me we clattered through these streets

And how we hit this town runnin'

And we were so sure of being us

We flattened everything that stood in our path

Now I wake up and I have to find myself

Through all the s*** that once told me who I was

I say goodbye to so many old friends

Here I left them to the wind

And there ain’t much point in chasing

The things you can never get back again

But there’s still some life in this one

Give me a match and I’ll reminisce

Of a time when we were younger

And we were stealing our first crack

And our thoughts had turned to dying

And we were unaware at the time

That this ride it could ever fall…

Could ever slow down to this time…

For I’ve been drunk and stoned and feeling mellow

And that’s how I’ve been getting through

Looking at the blurry shapes around me

Thinking I knew more than I knew

And it’s not that i don’t love you

Or are tired your ways

If i could only take you with me

If i could only ease this pain