Poor Blue Straggler

By Old Jim

To Be Sung to a Blues or Folk Tune. Go to the linked version.

I'm a poor blue straggler
On the HR diagram...
I don't know where I came from
And I don't know who I am...

Oh blue...poor blue blue blue straggler...

Too high on the main sequence,
Far above the giant turn...
I should now be brightning
My helium for to burn...

Oh blue...poor blue blue blue straggler...

Born in a collision
In an ancient glob-u-lar...
Or maybe by the merger
Of an old bi-nary star...

Oh blue...poor blue blue blue straggler...

When WILL I start evolving,
My stellar mates to join...
It could be in a billion,
With this core H yet to burn...

Oh blue...poor blue blue blue straggler...

Someday though I'll get there,
Be a big old AGB,
Pop a pretty neb'la,
And end degenerately.

Oh blue...poor blue blue blue straggler...
Oh blue...poor blue blue blue straggler.

Lyrics, by Jim Kaler, are free to use.
Credit, and a good tune, would be most appreciated.
Leah Sapir of Arizona suggests
"Poor Wayfaring Stranger,"
made famous by Burl Ives, and it works! Thanks, Leah.

Image of M 13 from the University of Illinois Prairie Observatory.
Dedicated to the Spring 2006 Astronomy 122 Honors class.