Carpenter Mary Chapin - John Doe No. 24 lyrics

I was standing on this sidewalk In 1945 in Jacksonville, Illinois When asked what my name was there came no reply They said I was a deaf and sightless, half-wit boy But Lewis was my name though I could not say it I was born and raised in New Orleans My spirit was wild, so I let the river take it On a barge and a prayer upstream They searched for a mother and they searched for a father And they searched till they searched no more The doctors put to rest their scientific test And they named me John Doe No. 24 And they all shook their heads in pity For a world so silent and dark Well, there's no doubt that life's a mystery But so too is the human heart And it was my heart's own perfume When the crape jasmine bloomed on St. Charles Avenue Though I couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming By toeing the track I knew And if I were an old man returning With my satchel and pork-pie hat I'd hit every jazz joint on Bourbon And I'd hit every one on Basin after that The years kept pa**ing as they pa**ed me around From one state ward to another Like I was an orphaned shoe from the lost and found Always missing the other They gave me a harp last Christmas And all the nurses took a dance Lately I've been growing listless Been dreaming again of the past I'm wandering down to the banks of the Great Big Muddy Where the shotgun houses stand I am seven years old and I feel my daddy Reach out for my hand While I drew breath no one missed me So they won't on the day that I cease Put a sprig of crape jasmine with me To remind me of New Orleans I was standing on this sidewalk In 1945 in Jacksonville, Illinois