Live Oak

() There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be, () and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me () And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around (Fade in) Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down I was rougher than the timber shipping out of Fond du Lac When I headed south at seventeen, the sheriff on my back I'd never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze, So I found another victim every couple days But the night I fell in love with her, I made my weakness known To the fighters and the farmers digging dusty fields alone The jealous innuendos of the lonely-hearted men Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in Well you couldn't stay a loner on the plains before the war When my neighbors took to slightin' me, I had to ask what for Rumors of my wickedness had reached our little town Soon she'd heard about the boys I used to hang around We'd robbed a great-lakes freighter, killed a couple men aboard When I told her, her eyes flickered like the sharp steel of a sword All the things that she'd suspected, I'd expected her to fear Was the truth that drew her to me when I landed here There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be, And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down x2 Well I carved her cross from live oak and her box from short-leaf pine, and buried her so deep, she'd touch the water table line And picked up what I needed and I headed south again To myself, I wondered, "Would I ever find another friend" There's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be, and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me