Bellingham - Bishop Allen

It must have been our crooked star that shook me out of place and that put me

on a train to who knows where

But looking out the window with the weight of my disgrace

Looking for what, I didn’t care

But the little town was glittering, oh just like Bethlehem

I said, «I'll stop right where I am»

Bellingham

And standing at the station

A stranger in the rain

She was calling out a name that wasn’t mine

She grabbed me by the shoulders

And I shuddered in surprise

But she seemed to recognize me alright

And maybe I believed that she was there looking for me

And maybe I just wanted to be found

But I didn’t try to clarify

No, I just let her leave

And she closed the trunk and drove me to her house

She’d been waiting for so long

She said, «Oh, I knew that you would come»

But she knows not who I am

Bellingham

The whole town dreamed of steamer fleets, the sultry August day

When the first ship cleared the Panama Canal

For the shipping lanes would mend and change their fortunes and their fates

Well, I’m glad that they can’t see what I see now

For there’s rubble and driftwood

Where they pooled their dimes to pay for the most majestic dock in the Puget

Sound

And when they cut the ribbon

The county brass band played

What a sad lament it seems they struck up now

No one ever could say why

But oh, the ships just passed on by

And they still don’t understand

And how long did I think I could keep up the masquerade

And how much did she know it was a lie

When every bond I’d ever made, I’d broken or betrayed

What made me think that I could step into a life that wasn’t mine?

I wrote a note and slipped away

It said, «Oh, I just can’t explain»

But it’s all been a sham

Bellingham