The Man Who Would Speak True

I had a lover, her name was Grace She found me down in a lonely place She dug me out with an old jaw bone She dressed me up for to take me home She fed me words that I could not taste For I had no tongue, it had been replaced By a green and a growing flower which grew And I knew if I ever spoke, I would speak true We lived together in an old hotel A broke-down palace with a wishing well The neighbor girl taught me how to spell And how to steal what I could not sell But I fed my tongue on the Devil's rum In a roadhouse run by a godless bum On a drunken night, with a stolen gun I shot my lover as she made to run The judge said, "Son, what have you done?" But I didn't speak a word, no I didn't speak one And the judge sent me away And they buried my Grace, yeah, the very next day They sent me out on a midnight train In the rain, rolling down through the dusty plain Four men sitting with an old shotgun Silver stars pinned on every one They busted my mouth for to get at my tongue To see just how this had all begun So I opened my mouth like a dragon's breath I only spoke truth, but it only brought death And I laid those boys to rest For the truth, in truth, is a terrible jest For there ain't no road but the road to home There ain't no crops but the ones you've sown And if you learn one thing from me You better guard your tongue like your enemy I came to ground in a one-horse town On the western rim where the sun goes down Where a branded man might start again For to right his wrong, for to lose his sin But my tongue kept growing, it would not cease I grew quite weary, couldn't get no release So I went to the magistrate and turned myself in Picked up a shovel, and he made the grin And they planted me by the sea Now the birds of the air make nests on me