Pancho & Lefty

Living on the road, my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
But now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath, as hard as kerosene

You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
Sank into your dreams

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

Pancho met his match, you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
And nobody heard his dying words
But that's the way it goes

And all the federales say
They could have 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 poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

And all the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so long
Out of kindness, I suppose

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

Pancho needs your prayers, it's true
Save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
Now he's getting old

And all the federales say
"They could have had him any day"
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose

Few grey federales say
They could've had him any day
They only let him go so long
Out of kindness, I suppose