Lyrics

Well with buckshot eyes and a purple heart I rolled down the national stroll 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 I was in bad need of a shave I slopped at the corner on cold chow mein And shot billiards 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 I 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 I'm so far away from home 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 Shore leave Shore leave Shore leave Shore leave Shore leave Shore leave