[Verse 1] There's a lonely man who sits outside waiting on a park bench
Waiting for his world to change every day
Never gets a tan out in the sunlight
His world is dark in every way
Everyone around him is spinning and turning aside
No one ever invites him anywhere
And when we see the old man and his bottle of Jack
Most of us just point, laugh, and stare
But I'm not for making fun of those who won't be
I'm in it for all too clear to see...

[Chorus] He's a strange old man
Not nothing to nobody
He tried to have it all long ago
Now he's broke, ugly, and ill
And time has shown its slow hand
For him it has never stood still
We tried to talk him out of it
An effort worth pennies to the crowd
But we all busted
He ain't goin' nowhere,
He's just a strange man.

[Verse 2] Now he gets on the crosstown bus
And sits way in the back with the air fans
Somebody catches a whiff of his breath
And not even the trashman can stand
His crooked teeth and lazy eye
And rigor made to sink a boat
But what the turnoff is for it all
Are the mean words escaping from his throat
So now I hop on and give him a wink
I say "He's not as bad as I think"....

[Bridge] Someday we'll go out and fix himself up
And put a nice suit and tie, cut off that hair
And suddenly the strange man we all grew to hate
Will be standing, all jazzed up, right over there
We'll give him a lady who will take him out
And take care of his body, dump out that booze
We'll know he's done and remade his ways
And suddenly the statement we will refuse...

[Chorus]

[Verse 3] Now he's somebody let's all say hi
So this not strange man won't pass us by.
Someday don't pass me by.

Want to comment on this Poetry? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Poetry and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...