No Man’s Land

(ahem) There’s a nail in the sky where the daylight hangs

And the wind talks back in broken twang I rode in on

a borrowed name With a rusted star and a taste for blame

The preacher said, “Son,

you’ll learn in time

The devil don’t show in horns or signs” But I seen tracks

where no man stood

And a mark

move where the mesquite should

I got dust on my badge,

blood in my boot

Something out here don’t answer to truth

I been chasin’ a ghost through caliche and sand But it ain’t

no man… Lord, it ain’t no man

Found a homestead split like a butcher’s grin

No tracks lead out,

but they led in

Table still set, but the chairs all gone

And a fiddle still hummin’ a dead man’s song

There’s a mark on the door I can’t quite read

Like a brand for a god that don’t take creed

And the horses scream when the sun dips low

Like they seen where the dead men go I got dust on

my badge, blood in my boot

Something out here don’t answer to truth Got a warrant signed by

a trembling hand But it ain’t no man… Lord,

it ain’t no man

Night come heavy like a sack of stone And the stars don’t

shine where I roam

I asked the dark,

“What name you keep?” (ahhhh) It just laughed from the canyon deep

(hahaha) My gun feels small in a world this wide Where the

law don’t reach and the sins don’t hide If justice lives,

she’s blind out here

Or she packed her bags and disappeared

Tracked it down to a dry creek bed

Where the bones lay wrong and the air felt dead

Saw my face in a pool gone black (ah!) But it weren’t

me starin’ back (oh lord...) It tipped its hat like it knew

my soul

Like it dug my grave and it dug it whole

Said, “Lawman, lawman, you’re out your depth No… You can’t arrest what

don’t fear death” Now there’s dust on my badge,

and it don’t shine true Buried my name where the black wind

blew

If you’re ridin’ west,

best turn where you stand

’Cause it ain’t no man… it ain’t no man

So nail up your doors and bury your guns

Pray real hard

to whatever comes

’Cause the law rides slow

and the dark rides fast

And some things

out here… they ain’t

meant to pass