Hoyt Axton - Poncho & Lefty Lyrics

Livin' on the road my friend
Is gonna make you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath is hard as kerosene

Weren't you mamma's only boy?
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said, goodbye
And it sank you to your dream

Poncho was a bandit beau
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his clothes
For all the honest world to see

Poncho met his match you know
On the desert down in Mexico
No one heard his dyin' word
But that's the way it goes

And all the Federales, they say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

Lefty, he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to do
The dust that Poncho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth

The day, they lay poor Poncho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
Well, there ain't nobody knows

Poets tell how Poncho fell
And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold
So the story ends I'm told

Poncho needs your prayers, it's true
But save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he's growin' old

And a few gray Federales say
We could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

Said a few gray Federales say
We could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose