I don't want to leave
Tell me I can stay
This time’s gone so fast
Soon I'll be on my way
And I count all the reasons why I must go
But part of me wishes to forget them all
If I could be reckless,
I'd tear my ticket in half

I didn't know
What I would find here
Things I had forgotten
For a quarter century
Every morning when I awake
To church bells ringing in another day
Feel so at home
Like a long, long time ago

This time and this town
A gift bittersweet
The rain and the snow storms here
Don't seem to matter to me
Now that the lilac’s in bloom
And swans glide two by two on the lakes
It makes it twice as hard to say goodbye
To you and your little mermaid