Album: The Ghost of Tom Joad

Straight Time

Got out of prison back in '86 and I found a wife
Walked the clean and narrow
Just tryin' to stay out and stay alive
Got a job at the rendering plant, it ain't gonna make me rich
In the darkness before dinner comes
Sometimes I can feel the itch
I got a cold mind to go tripping across that thin line
I'm sick of doin straight time

My uncle's at the evenin' table, makes his living runnin' hot cars
Slips me a hundred dollar bill says
Charlie you best remember who your friend are.

Got a cold mind to go tripping 'cross that thin line
I ain't makin' straight time

Eight years in it feels Iike your gonna die
But you get used to anything
Sooner or later it just becomes your life

Kitchen floor in the evening tossin' my little babies high
Mary's smilin' but she's watching me out of the corner of her eye
Seems you can't get any more than half free
I step out onto the front porch and suck the cold air deep inside of me
Got a cold mind to go tripping 'cross that thin line

I'm sick of doin' straight time

In the basement, huntin' gun and a hacksaw
Sip a beer, and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor

Come home in the evening, can't get the smell from my hands
Lay my head down on the pillow
And, go driftin' off into foreign lands