Livin' on the road my friend
Is gonna make you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath is hard as kerosene
Weren't you mamma's only boy?
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said, goodbye
And it sank you to your dream
Poncho was a bandit beau
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his clothes
For all the honest world to see
Poncho met his match you know
On the desert down in Mexico
No one heard his dyin' word
But that's the way it goes
And all the Federales, they 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 do
The dust that Poncho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day, they lay poor Poncho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
Well, there ain't nobody knows
Poets tell how Poncho fell
And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold
So the story ends I'm told
Poncho 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
And a few gray Federales say
We could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
Said a few gray Federales say
We could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose