Bed of Roses

She was called a scarlet woman by the people Who would go to church, but left me in the street With no parents of my own, I never had a home And an 18-year-old boy has got to eat She found me outside one Sunday morning Begging money from a man I didn't know She took me in and wiped away my childhood A woman of the streets, this lady Rose This bed of Roses that I lay on Where I was taught to be a man This bed of Roses where I'm livin' Is the only kind of life I understand She was a handsome woman, just 35 Who was spoken to in town by very few She managed the late evening business Like most of the town wished they could do And I learned all the things that a man should know From a woman not approved of, I suppose But she died knowing that I really loved her Off life's bramble bush, I picked the rose This bed of Roses that I lay on Where I was taught to be a man This bed of Roses where I'm livin' Is the only kind of life I understand This bed of Roses that I lay on Where I was taught to be a man This bed of Roses where I'm livin' Is the only kind of life I understand