Shore Leave - Tom Waits

Well with buck shot eyes and a purple heart

I rolled down the national stroll

and with a big fat paycheck

strapped to my hip sack

and a shore leave wristwatch underneath

my sleeve

in a Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels

I rowed down the gutter to the Blood Bank

and I'd left all my papers on the Ticonderoga

and was in a bad need of a shave

and so I slopped at the corner on cold chow mein

and shot billards with a midget

until the rain stopped

and I bought a long sleeved shirt

with horses on the front

and some gum and a lighter and a knife

and a new deck of cards (with girls on the back)

and I sat down and wrote a letter to my wife

and I said Baby, I'm so far away from home
and I miss my Baby so
I can't make it by myself
I love you so

Well I was pacing myself
trying to make it all last
squeezing all the life
out of a lousy two day pass
and I had a cold one at the Dragon
with some Filipino floor show
and talked baseball with a lieutenant
over a Singapore sling
and I wondered how the same moon outside
over this Chinatown fair
could look down on Illinois
and find you there
and you know I love you Baby

and I'm so far away from home
and I miss my Baby so
I can't make it by myself
I love you so

Shore Leave...
Shore Leave...

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