A Girl in Port

Let fall your soft and swaying skirt

Let fall your shoes, let fall your shirt

I'm not the ladykilling sort

Enough to hurt a girl in port

Marie's gone blonde and lost a stone

She lay on her lawn, spun and alone

And, when the morning sun it rose

Upon Marie in her lacy clothes

It lit her up, and she walked around

The winding streets of Camden Town

She don't know who she wants to be

And if I knew, I'd tell Marie

Let fall your soft and swaying skirt

Let fall your shoes, let fall your shirt

I'm not the ladykilling sort

Enough to hurt a girl in port

Cindy tells me she's had fun

Sitting backstage, someone's plus one

Up in her room the records spin

Needle in the grooves that she's worn thin

She lifts a sleeve and she sees a name

And she's got a smile on her face

And she's got a story you can't see

It's just between that name and Cindy

And before Holly made her way

Over the sea and far away

She's telling me, inside her car

Driving us back from the Crystal Corner bar

"I lost it there, I fell from health

Cut some fresh pieces from myself."

And then, for a second, something in me

Said, "Leave today. It's time, Holly."

Well, I'm a weak and lonely sort

Though I'm not sailing just for sport

I've come to feel, out on the sea

These urgent lives press against me

I'm just a guest. I'm not a part

With my tender head, with my easy heart

These several years out on the sea

Have made me empty, cold, and clear. Pour yourself into me

Let fall your soft and swaying skirt

Let fall your shoes, let fall your shirt

I'm not the ladykilling sort

Enough to hurt a girl in port