Print

Ruby said "You're gettin' us in a world of hurt. Down below the Mason-Dumbass line the food gets worse. I can't go back to Tennessee that NASCAR country's not for me. Go on, if you think you must." Carlos packed his drums up in the dark of night Ruby's standing just outside the front porch light chain-smoking Camel straights the sky off to the east got gray And he rolled off in a cloud of dust. And the gray colt knickered at the gate She said "You're right its getting late. You and me got work to do we can't be burning daylight too." She took down the long lead rope and stayed off that slippery slope The aspen trees were turning gold up top The talk was buzzin 'round the beauty shop "Wasn't he barely half her age. Well that's just how they do now days. We should all had been so lucky." By spring she'd had the run of the free born men Letras de cancionesRuby turned 50 in a sheep camp tent her body still could rock all night but her heart was closed and locked up tight Potato fields all muddy and brown the gossip long since quieted down And after one more Coggins test Pouring coffee for the county vet Pictures on the ice box door of Carlos in the first Gulf War Black-eyed brown and youthful face smiling back from a Saudi base And then Carlos on the big bay mare Heavier now and longer hair Looking past the saddle shed From way on back inside his head And the old vet said, "One day, Rube, that colt will break an egg in you. Now and then one comes along you just can't ride." And he went on home. And the storm door didn't catch It blew back hard as she struck a match But she cupped it just in time And she sent that ash tray flyin' And holding back the flood Just don't do no good You can't unclench your teeth To howl the way you should So you curl your lips around The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound That no one owns but you No one owns but you. Carlos took the road gig and he saw it through He rode the tour bus while the singer flew Managed out of music row Carlos never saw the studio Session guys had that all sewn up. He looks out the window and it starts to sleet Laying on a friend's couch on Nevada Street Lately he's been staying high Sick all winter and they don't know why They don't know why or they just won't say They don't talk much down at the V.A. And Ruby's in his thoughts sometimes What thoughts can get out past the wine He feels her fingers on his brow And right then he misses how She looked in that gray morning light She never shaved like they all do now He sees it all behind his eyes and his hands go searching but they come up dry And half way in that wakin' dream Carlos lets the land line ring He never guessed it was Ruby calling The pin in her hip from the gray colt falling Figure eight in a lazy lope Stumbled on that slippery slope And holding back the flood Just don't do no good You can't unclench your teeth To howl the way you should So you curl your lips around The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound That no one owns but you No one owns but you. (Thanks to aldzr for these lyrics) From Letras Mania