Too blind to pilot or work the console
The spirits of space still inhabit your soul
Y' cain't do what-else, and you won't take the dole
Arthritis kicks up in your fingers and hips
That damn' bunion aches every time the Girl "skips"
Sometimes you'd just love to cash in your chips
Chorus:
On the Goodnight Run, on the Loving Run
The Old Girl's in Hyper tonight
Her braces sing like an old pile of tin
It's a wonder the stress don't tear off Her skin
Forget it, just turn out the light.

It's eight weeks through Normal and deep Hyper-space
Just to drive cows to some feedlot on Grace
This Run's name fer a dead trail on Terra someplace
You can't sleep in Hyper, the pink air's too weird
You can't rest in Normal without drawing jeers
If you thought for too long, you might have to hide tears   (Cho.)

The ship ran like fire when it was brand-new
But lots of H-space coats the engines with goo
These times, it don't run much better than you
The food replicator ain't working too good
Most of the stuff that comes out tastes like wood
You wouldn't mind much if you had been a druid...   (Cho.)

The pay is damn' lousy, and the beds here are, too.
The people are shit and the cows should be glue
But it's the one job that they still let you do...
You're the only one still knows how these gadgets work
But each time they break, the boss calls you a jerk.
You may be too old, but then, so's James T. Kirk...   (Cho.)

Written 1993 by Gerald L. Bliss.

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About the Goodnight-Loving Trail: It is a cattle drive trail which runs from Abilene to Topeka (if I remember right) and got its name by being scouted by Oliver Loving and Col. John Goodnight. If that didn't need a filk, what did?