I Don't Fight Anymore

In a bar in Goondiwindi I found this tough old man

On his stool up at the bar black coffee shaking hands

Seamed with scar and callus from a life of long hard work

As the night wore on I ground him down on why he wouldn't drink

He said there was a woman don't it always seem that way

And he loved her more than life itself back in his younger days

That she was like a filly who had never felt the rope

Wild as the wind she'd run around and he just couldn't cope

And he said I don't fight anymore

I used to think that was the way but that was just before

I took to one young feller and I killed him with my hands

That's why I don't fight anymore

The night he found Johanna in the strong and loving arms

Of a fine young man who worked the rails and took odd jobs on farms

He'd been drinking hard before he took that young man's life

And he didn't hide he stood and cried and fell before the law

And he said I don't fight anymore

I used to think that was the way but that was just before

I took to one young feller and I killed him with my hands

That's why I don't fight anymore

And ten years on the dark side of the bars have made you think

That freedom's more than a woman or a fire or a good hard drink

So tonight I sit and toast the ghosts of things that made me drink

I can hear their laughter in the night and they never go away

And that's why I don't fight anymore

I used to think that was the way but that was just before

I took to one young feller and I killed him with my hands

That's why I don't fight anymore

He just said I don't fight anymore

I used to think that was the way but that was just before

I took to one young feller and I killed him with my hands

I don't fight anymore