As You Start Leaving

A train sounds off with whistle blowing

Lighthouse horn sounds early warning

Clean cool air with stars out shining

Overcoat and whiskey drinking

Hands locked tight and close together

These nights are bliss in drunken leisure

Spitting air in gusts as it gets cooler

Spase clouds try to come together

You can feel the chill and bid farewell

As you start leaving

Sounds like an evening

The cars thin out on empty streets

no traffic jams to make you weak

Shopkeepers leave, at home they speak

Of good patrons and of cash and thieves

The wind is gaining ground on you

The air turns damp with seaside dew

But it don't lie, it tells the truth

And all is well and all is new

Your west side is a teenage waiting

Los Angeles a childhood haze

Like steps to nowhere you sit there gazing

At friends you've lost through years of forgetting

time sells you short of all you're wanting

Though you don't know just what you're seeking

Except winter nights and cigarettes

And boozing with the best of them