Ruby And Carlos

Ruby said "You're gettin' us in a world of hurt.

Down below the Mason-Dumbass line the food gets worse.

I can't go back to Tennessee

That NASCAR country's not for me.

Go on, if you think you must."

Carlos packed his drums up in the dark of night

Ruby's standing just outside the front porch light

Chain-smoking Camel straights

The sky off to the east got gray

And he rolled off in a cloud of dust.

And the gray colt knickered at the gate

She said "You're right it's getting late.

You and me got work to do

We can't be burning daylight too."

She took down the long lead rope

And stayed off that slippery slope

The aspen trees were turning gold up top

The talk was buzzin 'round the beauty shop

"Wasn't he barely half her age.

Well that's just how they do now days.

We should all had been so lucky."

By spring she'd had the run of the free born men

Ruby turned 50 in a sheep camp tent

Her body still could rock all night

But her heart was closed and locked up tight

Potato fields all muddy and brown

The gossip long since quieted down

And after one more Coggins test

Pouring coffee for the county vet

Pictures on the ice box door

Of Carlos in the first Gulf War

Black-eyed brown and youthful face

Smiling back from a Saudi base

And then Carlos on the big bay mare

Heavier now and longer hair

Looking past the saddle she'd

From way on back inside his head

And the old vet said, "One day, Rube,

That colt will break an egg in you.

Now and then one comes along

You just can't ride." And he went on home.

And the storm door didn't catch

It blew back hard as she struck a match

But she cupped it just in time

And she sent that ash tray flyin'

And holding back the flood

Just don't do no good

You can't unclench your teeth

To howl the way you should

So you curl your lips around

The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound

That no one owns but you

No one owns but you.

Carlos took the road gig and he saw it through

He rode the tour bus while the singer flew

Managed out of music row

Carlos never saw the studio

Session guys had that all sewn up.

He looks out the window and it starts to sleet

Laying on a friend's couch on Nevada Street

Lately he's been staying high

Sick all winter and they don't know why

They don't know why or they just won't say

They don't talk much down at the V.A.

And Ruby's in his thoughts sometimes

What thoughts can get out past the wine

He feels her fingers on his brow

And right then he misses how

She looked in that gray morning light

She never shaved like they all do now

He sees it all behind his eyes

And his hands go searching but they come up dry

And half way in that wakin' dream

Carlos lets the land line ring

He never guessed it was Ruby calling

The pin in her hip from the gray colt falling

Figure eight in a lazy lope

Stumbled on that slippery slope

And holding back the flood

Just don't do no good

You can't unclench your teeth

To howl the way you should

So you curl your lips around

The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound

That no one owns but you

No one owns but you.