Fail Hard To Regain

Well once I knew a railway girl

Her age was 17

I gave her all I had to give,

but the baggage of my dreams

Stole me from the games we played

Scorned me for my mask

And if she's gone she lingers on

I beg you please don't ask

Twas on a dark March evening

South-bound I did ride

My head was out the window when

I found her at my side

Asked where I was goin' to

I told but where I came

For the jails in which Ive done my time

I fail hard to regain

Dark girl, dark girl it kills me so

to watch you so afraid

You know that you've been real to those

and realness should be paid

Her eyes gone wide, alive she cried

Does pleasure ever last?

We live to see, but patiently

I beg you please don't ask

She took me in despite my sins

Fed me tea and such

And as she fell just like a child

I crumbled 'neath her touch

I held my breath and appeared to weep

at the fragments of my brain

See each day's but a moment lad

I fail hard to regain

But as it goes the fiddler throws

Our values to the street

Whole world pain and sayings as gay as

Impatience in his field

And captives of this Wall Street trade

We curse our mortal tasks

Forgive us though we all must go

And where to please don't ask

And now I am a misspent man

Who knows not where he's been

And oh so sapped with sufferin'

The worst is yet unseen

Renounce myself for further wealth

I take each breath in vain

Still haunted by that railway girl

I fail hard to regain