Live Oak

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 now? I was rougher than the timber shippin' out of Fond du Lac When I headed south at 17 ol' sheriff on my back I'd 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 fighters 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 took to 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 aboard 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 ever find another friend There's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me.