Iron Road

A hundred lists of reasons I keep round

Why I never had a family, why I never settled down

Why I'd sooner, in the mirror, see a hobo lookin' low

But the reasons now escape me as I walk the iron road

Like a lot of kids I left my boyhood home

Worked a little on the railroad, worked a little travelin' on

Till the closest that I ever got to an address or a phone

Was the day I spent my last two bits on a one-page letter home

At twenty-one, my arches lay down flat

At twenty-two, I started takin' loans

But if the train will come, I'll wipe the boxcar dirt from off my bones

I'll curse the wheels that roll me, roll me down this iron road

Iron road, iron road

You'll never give up your gold

I spent twenty-four hours today, lookin' back and feelin' low

Twenty-four hours of lookin' back can kill you, I've been told

At sixty, my dad left his boyhood town

Within a year, my mother followed him to higher ground

I'll be the next to join 'em soon as I see that engine roll

Gonna lay my head on that railroad bed and leave that iron road

Gonna lay my head on that railroad bed and leave that iron road

At twenty-one, my arches lay down flat

At twenty-two, I started takin' loans

But if the train will come, I'll wipe the boxcar dirt from off my bones

I curse the wheels that roll me, roll me down this iron road

I curse the wheels that roll me, roll me down this iron road