Dead Man's Hand

Yellow lines in the dead of the night

Oh, I was headin' back out west

Tryna keep my eyes open wide

I'd gone days without any rest

Saw him lyin' in the road lookin' bad

About twenty yards ahead

You come back from a trip to the east

But you don't come back from the dead

Sure as hell, he was dead as they come

And he was already startin' to smell

Just a kid with his hair slicked back

And a knife tucked into his belt

Was he unforgiven, or just tired of livin' a life

That never felt like his?

Though I was worn and weary, I thought I'd bury him

And lay his soul to rest out in the desert night

I laid him down in a grave in the sand

And he grabbed my arm with his dead man's hand

He said, "I know I'm dead, but I don't wanna lie

In a grave out here where the coyotes cry

I stared right into the endless void

And I ain't goin' back if I got any choice

I know how to live, I don't know how to die

And there ain't no thrills in the afterlife"

"So lift me up out of here, my friend

And I'll wander the night till the ages end"

Lit by the moon, he walked through the sand

And he waved goodbye with his dead man's hand

And he will roam forever hauntin' the desert

And he will roam forever hauntin' the desert