The Man Who Would Speak True

I had lover her name was Grace

She found me down in a lonely place

She dug me out with an old jar bow

She dressed me up for to take me home

She fed me words that I could not taste

For I had no tongue it had been replaced

By a green and growing flower which grew

And I knew if I ever spoke I would speak true

We lived together in an old hotel

A broke down palace with a wishing well

The neighbor girl taught me how to spell

And how to steal what I could not sell

But I fed my tongue on the Devil's rum

In a roadhouse run by godless bum

On a drunken night with a stolen gun

I shot my lover as she made to run

The judge said "son, what've ya done?"

But I didn't speak a word, no I didn't speak one

And the judge sent me away

And they buried my Grace, yeah the very next day

They sent me out on a midnight train

In the rain rolling down through the dusty plain

Four men sitting with an old shotgun

Silver stars pinned on every one

They busted my mouth for to get at my tongue

To see just how this had all begun

So I opened my mouth like a dragon's breath

I only spoke truth but it only brought death

And I laid those boys to rest

For the truth, in truth, is a terrible jest

For there ain't no road but the road to home

There ain't no crops but the ones you've sewn

And if you learn one thing from me

You better guide your tongue like your enemy

I came to ground in a one horse town

On the western rim where the sun go down

Where a branded man might start again

For to right his wrong for to lose his sin

But my tongue kept growing it would not cease

I grew quite weary couldn't get no release

So I went to the magistrate to turn myself in

Picked up a shovel and he made the grin

And they planted me by the sea

Now the birds of the air make nests on me