How have you been, my darling children While I have been away in the west Though you are strangers I feel like I know you By the way that you treat me and offer to feed me And eagerly ask if I?ll stay for a rest Now sit yourselves down in a pile here before me I wish I had presents for each of your smiles But I have been travelling without much to carry Just a broken guitar case with TAPE on the sides A bag and a few signs to help me get rides But here are some beads from the throat of a Princess Who lived in the years around 200 BC Divide them and wear them, but make sure to share them 'Cause I want you to have them in hopes that you'll be As lovely as the lady who gave them to me... And here is a strange European guitar string I found on the floor of a club in Marseilles It?s fat for the third string and skinny for the fourth string But I kept it in hopes that I?d use it some day It?s funny how people just keep things that way And here is a turtle from the Long Island Expressway He says that his home has been covered with tar So I gave him a ride on the back of my suitcase And he says that he?d like to stay here in your yard At long last his life won?t be quite so hard And how have you been, my darling children While I have been away in the west Though you are strangers I feel like I know you By the way that you treat me and offer to feed me And eagerly ask if I?ll stay for a rest And how have you been, my darling children