Live Oak

There's a man who walks beside me It 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? I was rougher than a timber Shippin' out of Fond du Lac When I headed south at 17 Ol' sheriff on my back I never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze So I found another victim every couple days But the night I fell in love with her I made my weakness known Through the fires and the farmers diggin' dusty fields alone The jealous innuendos of the lonely hearted men Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in Well you couldn't stay a loner On the plains before the war My neighbors had been 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 We'd robbed a Great Lakes freighter Killed a couple men or more And 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 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? Well I carved a cross from live oak And a box from shortleaf pine Buried her so deep She touched the water table line I picked up what I needed And I headed south again To myself I wondered Would I find another friend There's a man who walks beside her It is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me