The Last One

You were born in missouri, to a mother all alone

Your daddy was out on the road again

And it stayed like that till the age of five, when your father died

But you never could find anger, he was the traveling kind

Sometimes she would tell you stories,

As she laid you down to sleep.

About how he had played the biggest stage

The years went by and you grew up strong

But there was something you just couldn’t find

You turned 18, and your momma gently wept

And told you the last words that he said

Son take your horses and run

And you will know this country like the back of your hand

The names will escape you, but the faces never will

This one life is yours and yours alone

Thanksgiving came and passed like rain on southern afternoon

You were living like you never had before

And a friend of yours you’d known in school

Called you up to have a drink

He said there’s someone that i think you should meet

You laughed it off and claimed circumstance

Would keep you from a bride

The truth was those thoughts led your bones to shake

But he wouldn’t accept a coward’s words and the plans were made that night

6 months later she became your wife

9 months later your little girl cried, for the first time

Son take your horses and run

And you will know this country like the back of your hand

The names will escape you, but the faces never will

This one life is yours and yours alone

And i loved your mother, your sister and your brother

They made me a man that could be loved

And it was jesus there to save me

From the life that i got wrong

And i’m so glad i never walked alone

One day you realized you were the same age as me

When i passed away

You called mother and told her she was loved

That night after you read brown bear

And sang your child to sleep

You thanked the good lord for family

That we aren’t together but one day we would be