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 And thirty-one I was impressionable, I was upsettable I tried to make my breathing stop, my heart beat 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 and 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 Other 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 (Hoist up the John B. sail) See how the main sail sets (See how the main sail sets) I've folded my heart in my head And I wanna 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 (Hoist up the John B. sail) See how the main sail sets (See how the main sail sets) I've folded my heart in my head And I wanna go home With a book in each hand (With a book in each hand) In the way I had planned (In the way I had planned) I feel so broke up I wanna go home