I'm Not From Here

I'm not from here

I just live here

grew up somewhere far away

come here thinking I'd never stay long

I'd be going back soon someday

it's been a few years

since I got here

seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go

crowds assemble, they hang out awhile

then they melt away like an early snow

onto some bright future somewhere

down the road to points unknown

sending postcards when they get there

wherever it is they think they're goin'

I'm not from here

I just live here

can't see that it matters much

I read the papers and I watch the nightly news

who's to say I'm out of touch

nobody's from here

most of us just live here

locals long since moved away

sold the played-out farms for parking lots

went off looking for a better way

onto some bright future somewhere

better times on down the road

wonder if they ever got there

wherever it was they thought they'd go

hit my home town

a couple years back

hard to say just how it felt

but it looked like so many towns I might've been through

on my way to somewhere else

I'm not from here

but people tell me

it's not like it used to be

they say I should have been here

back about ten years

before it got ruined by folks like me

we can't help it

we just keep moving

it's been that way since long ago

since the stone age, chasing the great herds

we mostly go where we have to go

onto some bright future somewhere

down the road to points unknown

sending post cards when we get there

wherever it is we think we'll go