Pancho and Lefty

Livin' on the road, my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath as hard as kerosene

Weren't your mama's only boy
Her favorite one, it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit boy
His horse as fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel

Pancho met his match, you know
In the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' words
Oh, but that's the way it goes

All the federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

Lefty, he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth

The day they laid ol' Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
Ain't nobody knows

All the federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

Poets tell how Pancho fell
And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story ends, we're told

Pancho needs your prayers, it's true
But save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he's growin' old

All the federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him slip away

A few good federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness, I suppose