I don't want to leave Tell me I can stay This time’s gone so fast Soon I'll be on my way And I count all the reasons why I must go But part of me wishes to forget them all If I could be reckless, I'd tear my ticket in half I didn't know What I would find here Things I had forgotten For a quarter century Every morning when I awake To church bells ringing in another day Feel so at home Like a long, long time ago This time and this town A gift bittersweet The rain and the snow storms here Don't seem to matter to me Now that the lilac’s in bloom And swans glide two by two on the lakes It makes it twice as hard to say goodbye To you and your little mermaid