The boxer
(Paul Simon)

 
 C
I am just a poor boy
                          Am
though my story's seldon told
            G
I have squandered my resistance
      G7             G6  
for a pocket full of mumbles
             C
such are promises.
              Am
All lies and gest 
         G                 F
still a man hears what he wants  to hear
                   C         G   G7   G6     C
and disregard the rest. Hum... Hum... Hum...
 
 
                 
 C 
When I left my home and my family
                      Am
I was no more than a boy
          G
In the company of strangers
       G7           G6
In the quiet of the railway station
C                 Am
Running scared. Laying low
         G                 F
Seeking out the poorer quarters
                        C
Where the ragged people go
        G 
looking for the places  
G7    G6           C
only they   would know

 
Am       G   Am   G   F   C
Lai... lai... lau... lai...lai...lai...lai...lai...

 
C
Asking only workman wages
                     Am
I come looking for a job
               G
but I get no offers. 
       G7    
Just a come on
         G6            C
From the whores on 7th avenue
       Am                 G
I do declare there were times
              F
when I was so lonesome
                      C
I took some confort there. 
               G          C
(**Coro**)  Lai...la....lai...

 
C 
Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
                   Am          G
and wishing I was gone. Going home
      G7           G6 
Where the New York city winter's
           C                Em
aren't bleeding me, leading me
        G
going home.

 
C
In the clearing stands a boxer
                       Am
and a fighter by this trade
          G
and he carries the reminders

of every glove the laid hin down
 
    C
Or cut him till he cried out in his anger
          Am           G             F
And hes shame, I am leaving, I am leaving
                         C      G    C
But the fighter sitll remains.