the river

i'm walking down the empty streets we used to know, with all those teenage dreams of conquering the world, in between the boats along the quay, same old river staring back at me, she's watching everybody come and go, carried here then washed away given to the flow, but every time i go back there, i feel i'm winding up nowhere, why keep asking it to deliver, when those days are way down the river, it's gotta be time that i move on, the good old days they are long gone, let it carry me into the future, out of the background, into the foreground, giving it all to the river, so meet me somewhere new on some bright afternoon, when you have shed the skin that holds me back from you, oh everything you want was long ago, carried off and washed away given to the flow, the river rolls on rolls on, forever rolls on rolls on