Live Oak Songtext

?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.