Dead Man's Hand

Yellow lines in the dead of the night
I was heading back out west
Trying to keep my eyes open wide
I’d gone days without any rest
Saw him lying in the road looking bad about 20 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 starting to smell
Just a kid with his hair slicked back
And a knife tucked into his belt
Was he unforgiven or just tired of living a life
That never felt like his?
Though I was 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 coyote’s cry
I stared right into the endless void
And I ain’t going 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 ‘til the ages end.”
Lit by the moon he walked through the sand
And he waved goodbye with his dead man’s hand
He will roam forever, haunting the desert