Merle Haggard Poncho And Lefty lyrics

Livin' on the road my friend
Is gonna keep you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath is hard as kerosene

Weren't you mamma's only boy?
Her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said good bye
Sank to your dream

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

Poncho met his match, you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' word
But that's the way it goes

All the Federals, 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
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
There ain't nobody knows

All the Federals they say
We could have had him any day
We only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

The poets tell how Poncho fell
And Lefty's livin' in cheap hotels
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold
And so the story ends we're told

Poncho needs your prayers
It's true, save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he's growin' old

All the Federals, they say
We could have had him any day
They only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose

A few grey Federals, they say
We could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose