James McMurtry - I'm Not from Here

I'm not from here
I just live here
Grew up somewhere far away
Came 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 post cards when they get there
Wherever it is they think they're goin'

I'm not from here
I just live here
Can't say 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 their 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 is 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've 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 they think we'll go