Sidewalk Hobo - Tony Joe White

As footsteps echo softly to the early morning hours

The slowness of his moves should be a warning

But from the trash he digs

He patches socks and yesterdays flowers

What a way to start a Monday morning

He might have been a carpenter at one time in his life

And he built a lot of homes but never had one

Or he could have been a poet

Who had come upon some hard times

And all that he had lived was just his sad poems

He could have been a singer with a lot of promise

But cigarettes and whiskey ruined his throat

Now it was hard to remember even a simple tune

Or the words to songs that he had wrote

Now take me back to Memphis

I’ve got to do some thinking

'Cause I’ve been in this city way too long

And it lays heavy on my mind

When I see another man

Having to make the sidewalks his home