The Legionnaire's Lament

I'm a legionnaire Camel in disrepair Hoping for a frigid heir to come passing by I am on reprieve Lacking my joie de virve Missing my gay Paris In this desert dry And I wrote my girl Told her I would not return Terribly taken a turn For the worse now I fear It's been a year or more Since they shipped me to this foreign shore Fighting in a foreign war So far away from my home If only summer rain would fall On the houses and the boulevards And the side walk bagatelles it's like a dream With the roar of cars And the lulling of the cafe bars, The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine. Lord I don't know if I'll ever be back again. La la la la dam La la la low Medicating in the sun Pinched doses of laudanum Longing for the old fecundity of my homeland Curses to this mirage A bottle of ancient Shiraz A smattering of distant applause Is ringing in my poor ears On the old left bank My baby in a charabanc Riding up the width and length Of the Champs Elysees If only summer rain would fall On the houses and the boulevard And the side walk bagatelles it's like a dream With the roar of cars And the lulling of the cafe bars The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine Lord I don't know if I'll ever be back again If only summer rain would fall On the houses and the boulevard And the side walk bagatelles it's like a dream With the roar of cars And the lulling of the cafe bars The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine Lord I don't know if I'll ever be back again Be back again, Be back again, I'll be back again --- The Legionnaire's Lament - The Decemberists