The Wind Is Up And Walking

An old and weary watchman, hangin’ in the prison yard

Kickin’ in the wind to reach between these prison bars

A scratchin’ hempen hunger, an ending on a rope

An open mouth that longs to wrap its lips around my throat

The wind is up and walkin, shouldering the night

The oak is throwin’ shadows, dancing in the dim moonlight

I told that fuckin Sheriff, keep his headlights off my house

My sister's husband’s missing, she’s got enough to think about

I put a deer slug in his headlight, and another in his tail

But he come back with an army, and they hauled me off to jail

The Sheriff found my brother-in-law, with a deer slug in his chest

And he told the judge that slug and mine were a damn near perfect match

I saw em winkin’ back and forth, before they put me on the row

And my brother seen one headlight pullin’ down the drive at home

The wind is up and walkin, shouldering the night

The oak is throwin’ shadows dancing in the dim moonlight

 

The wind is up and walkin, a cold steady hand

Pullin’ tight the rope stretched below the oaken branch

Now that rope’s around my neck, but the Sheriff ain’t around

He’s strung up on an apple cart below an oak behind our house

My brother’s hands are on the harness, my old horse is moving forward

The Sheriff’s boots are kickin’ loose when mine drop through this door

The wind is up and walkin, shouldering the night

The oak is throwin’ shadows dancing in the dim moonlight

 

The wind is up and walkin, a cold steady hand

Pullin’ tight the rope stretched below the oaken branch