I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told   I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles such are promises   All lies and jests still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest      When I left my home and my family   I was no more than a boy in the company of strangers   In the quiet of the railway station running scared   Laying low seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go   Looking for the places only they would know   [ steel ]   Asking only workman's wages   I come looking for a job but I get no offers   Just a come on from the whores on Seventh Avenue   I do declare there were some times when I was so lonesome   And I took some comfort there   [ guitar - steel ]   In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade   And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down   And cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame   I am leaving I am leaving but the fighter still remains