He rode the rails since the great depression   Fifty years out on the skids   He said you don't cross nobody   You'll be all right out here kid      Left my family in Pennsylvania   Searchin' for work I hit the road   I met Frank in east Texas   In a freight yard blown through with snow      From New Mexico to Colorado   California to the sea   Frank he showed me the ropes, sir   Just till I could get back on my feet      I hoed sugar beets outside of Firebaugh   I picked the peaches from the Marysville tree   They bunked us in a barn just like animals   Me and a hundred others just like me      We split up come the springtime   I never seen Frank again   'Cept one rainy night he blew by me on grainer   Shouted my name and disappeared in the rain and the wind      They found him shot dead outside Stockton   His body lyin' on a muddy hill   Nothin' taken, nothin' stolen   Somebody killed him just to kill      Late that summer I was rollin' through the plains of Texas   A vision passed before my eyes A small house sittin' trackside   With the glow of the saviours beautiful light      A woman stood cookin' in the kitchen   Kid sat at the table with his old man   Now I wonder does my son miss me   Does he wonder where I am      Tonight I pick my campsite carefully   Outside the Sacramento Yard   Gather some wood and light a fire   In the early winter dark      Wind whistling cold I pull my coat around me   Make some coffee and stare out into the black night   I lie awake, I lie awake sir   With my machete by my side      My Jesus your gracious love and mercy   Tonight I'm sorry could not fill my heart   Like one good rifle And the name of who I ought to kill