[Verse 1]
There's a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be
And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me
And I wonder who she's pinin' for on nights I'm not around
Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down?

[Verse 2]
I was rougher than the timber shippin' out of Fond du Lac
When I headed south at seventeen, the sheriff on my back
And I'd never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze
So I found another victim every couple days

[Verse 3]
But the night I fell in love with her I made my weaknеss known
Through the fighters and the farmеrs diggin' dusty fields alone
And the jealous innuendos of the lonely-hearted men
Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in

[Verse 4]
Well, you couldn't stay a loner on the plains before the war
My neighbors took to slightin' me, I had to ask what for
Rumors of my wickedness had reached our little town
Soon she'd heard about the boys I used to hang around

[Verse 5]
We'd robbed a Great Lakes freighter, killed a couple men aboard
When I told her her eyes flickered like the sharp steel of a sword
All the things that she'd suspected I'd expected her to fear
Was the truth that drew her to me when I landed here
[Verse 6]
There's a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be
And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me
And I wonder who she's pinin' for on nights I'm not around
Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down?

[Verse 7]
Well, I carved a cross from live oak and a box from shortleaf pine
And I buried her so deep she touched the water table line
And I packed up what I needed and I headed south again