There’s all these people singing today
“Bless me, what a wonderful life”
But I’ve been around enough
To know that isn’t right.
I’ve felt loss and I’ve seen death
I’ve stared the gun in the face
I can see the smoke coming off the barrel
Just another casualty in the rat race.
My mama and my papa
Worked hard every day of their life
Laying down to save this land
Through turmoil, blood and strife.
I know about the struggle
How it’s best to take what you can get
But just live life being happy so
That’s something I’ll never forget
Suddenly it’s not about the
Price tag on your clothes or what you wear
Who even gives a ****?
Who the hell even cares?
Because when you’re out here
Any relevance to that is gone
You’re just another average Joe
The best you can hope for is to die with your boots on
It don’t matter about a grave
You’ll be too far gone to care
Just chuck me in a ditch
Please don’t cry, please don’t despair
Cos you work every day of your life
And when it’s gone it’s gone
And if you’re a good boy then maybe
You’ll be lucky enough to die with your boots on.

To Lucinda*

There you stand in the door
And after all the fights we’ve been through
When the-you-know-what hit the you-know-where
You still can bear to look at me
I see the tears twinkle in your eyes
I see the hands on your hip
And I dread to think what you’ve got to face
They way you’re working over your top kip
You never shout, you just look disappointed
Your eyes say: ‘back down that stony road’
And now even though I hurt you
You helped pick your girlfriend up out of the road
Because there was a ****** old truck coming
She just broke down to bawl
And yet after all that
You’re a proud woman standing tall
You sit down on the bed next to me
And you speak ever so slightly
I feel your warm breath on me
In the cool of the Texas night
You say, ‘Oh Dan here we are again,
I thought we talked about this.’
She’s out there crying in the other room
You should know nothing goes amiss
And if I get caught in here you know
I’m going to be dead meat too’.
I apologise profusely, counting my blessings
You just look at me like you always do.
‘Now, you know I got to go console her
You know I’ve got to go and get supplies
Of tissues and Kleenex and toilet rolls
But please just give it time
Let everyone cool down, storms always blow over
It’s the only way a friendship can be saved
With that she left, back to the toilet a girl bereft
And as I heard the sobbing I know I’d take that to my grave.

I sit here alone with my drink at the bar
Listening to what my senses say
My heart’s telling me
You ain’t no kid at 23
If you play around
You’ll lose your friends
Play too long
And you’ll lose your life.
Mothers, oh mothers
They’ll try and protect you
But there’s a time that they gotta let go
Because it’s a cross they can’t bear
And for all your father will want to tell you
It’s a bridge he can’t cross
Not again, you have to walk it alone.
And I realise now all the things
That my father couldn’t tell me
The  boundaries you just don’t cross
The rules you just don’t break
Not at any cost;
But then, I had to find out on my own.
I had to do things the hard way
To learn what friendship meant to me
I was working on a mystery without any clues
About women and about their intricacies
Sometimes it’s worth a few false starts
A few nights of whiskey on the rocks
Trying to understand Jack
So that you realise a step in the right direction
Is worth a wasted mile behind.

Justice is one thing you should always find
And it’s something not so common today.
If you step out of line
There should be hell to pay
We need a little more retribution
And throw a rope of that tree
If we put a few more in the ground
All those bad boys would think more carefully
Before assaulting that person
Before doing somebody wrong
And once the gun smoke settles
We’ll all meet in the saloon for a victory song
Back in those days my papie said
A man had to face up to what he’d done
We’d either find a great oak tree
Hanging them high or put them to the gun
There just ain’t any deterrent any more
We have to raise our glasses up against evil forces
We got too many gangsters, too much corruption
Order whiskies all round for the men and water for the horses
Today we need to show them who’s boss
The law needs to put a few more bodies in the ground
We need to fins the tallest oak tree and a length of a rope
Let them meet their Maker, that’ll settle them down.

Lucinda, Lucinda
Why didn’t I realise
The goodness that lay in your heart
The redemption that lay in your eyes
I feel so unworthy
All that you did for me.
In one moment of anger
I threw it away carelessly
I said somethings I didn’t mean
And I foolishly left for a while
Thinking that I could make it on my own
But I returned dejected to a smile
They way you hug me
You hug me like you really do
Mean it, god, I feel so unworthy.
I’ve never met a woman so true
With such a heart of gold
I just stand back in awe
The way you forgive what I’d rather forget
You find perfection where others see flaws
God must be a woman
No other being could hold such love
There’s not a day that doesn’t go by.
When I don’t thank the Good Man above
For bringing women like you into my life
Because I was going god knows where to this day
For all the time I spent alone
You made me feel like I wanted to stay
I know I’d be happy if I knew I was your man
You build me up when I don’t feel tall
I am just standing here in awe
Girl, now I’ve seen it all

For Lucinda*

Lucinda, Lucinda
Why didn’t I realise
The goodness that lay in your heart
The redemption that lay in your eyes
I feel so unworthy
All that you did for me.
In one moment of anger
I threw it away carelessly
I said somethings I didn’t mean
And I foolishly left for a while
Thinking that I could make it on my own
But I returned dejected to a smile
They way you hug me
You hug me like you really do
Mean it, god, I feel so unworthy.
I’ve never met a woman so true
With such a heart of gold
I just stand back in awe
The way you forgive what I’d rather forget
You find perfection where others see flaws
God must be a woman
No other being could hold such love
There’s not a day that doesn’t go by.
When I don’t that the Good Man above
For bringing women like you into my life
Because I was going god knows where to this day
For all the time I spent alone
You made me feel like I wanted to stay
I know I’d be happy if I knew I was your man
You build me up when I don’t feel tall
I am just standing here in awe
Girl, now I’ve seen it all

For Lucinda*

I tightened my bandana
On my sun-kissed skin
I rubbed my three-day beard
God, I need a shave
God, I was going god knows where
I thought I was heading for old El Paso
As I picked my pack from the floor
But I stopped as I started for the door.
Life is just empty
When you’re walking alone.
So wherever you’re going, girl
I want to go there with you.
I sit there and watch you sleep
So innocent and so peaceful.
Last night’s cherry lipstick
Last night’s Vanilla *****
You gave me the freedom to stay; Lucinda
I could ramble a thousand miles
But what Good would it do?
I’d still hurt in the old familiar way
I’d just be sweating
I could go coast to coast, seaboard to seaboard
And never find the light
But the light’s right here, in your eyes,
You gave me the freedom to stay.
I sit on the bed and just look
Look at you in awe
What’s the point in chasing a falling star?
When the light’s in your heart
Why keep on running, when here you are?
I could ramble a thousand miles
And never see the light in your eyes again.