Straight Time

[Verse 1] Got out of prison back in '86 and I found a wife Walked the clean and narrow Just trying to stay out and stay alive Got a job at the rendering plant, it isn't going to make me rich In the darkness before dinner comes Sometimes I can feel the itch [Chorus] I got a cold mind to go tripping across that thin line I'm sick of doing straight time [Verse 2] My uncle's at the evening table, makes his living running hot cars Slips me a hundred dollar bill says "Charlie you best remember who your friends are" [Chorus] [Verse 3] Eight years in it feels like you're going to die But you get used to anything Sooner or later it just becomes your life Kitchen floor in the evening tossing my little babies high Mary's smiling but she's watching me out of the corner of her eye Seems you can't get any more than half free I step out onto the front porch and suck the cold air deep inside of me [Chorus] [Bridge] In the basement hunting gun and a hacksaw Sip a beer and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor [Outro] Come home in the evening, can't get the smell from my hands Lay my head down on the pillow And go drifting off into foreign lands