Dead Man's Hand

Yellow lines in the dead of the night

I was heading back out west

Trying to keep my eyes open wide

I'd gone days without any rest

Saw him lying in the road looking bad about 20 yards ahead

You come back from a trip to the east

But you don't come back from the dead

Sure as hell he was dead as they come

And he was already starting to smell

Just a kid with his hair slicked back

And a knife tucked into his belt

Was he unforgiven or just tired of living a life

That never felt like his?

Though I was was worn and weary, I thought I'd bury him

And lay his soul to rest out in the desert night

I laid him down in a grave in the sand

And he grabbed my arm with his dead man's hand

He said: "I know I'm dead but I don't wanna lie

In a grave out here where the coyote's cry

I stared right into the endless void

And I ain't going back if I got any choice

I know how to live, I don't know how to die

And there ain't no thrills in the afterlife

So lift me up out of here my friend

And I'll wander the night 'til the ages end

Lit by the moon he walked through the sand

And he waved goodbye with his dead man's hand

He will roam forever, haunting the desert