Livin' on the road my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean

And now you wear your skin like iron, and your breath is hard as kerosene

Weren't you mamma's only boy-oy, her favourite one it seems

She began to cry when you said, good-bye, sank to your dream



Poncho was a bandit boy, his horse was fast as polished steel

He wore his gun outside his pants, for all the honest world to feel

Poncho met his match, you know, on the deserts down in Mexico

Nobody heard his dyin' word, but that's the way it goes



All the Federales, they say

They could have had him any day

They only let him slip a-away

Out of kindness I suppose



Lefty he can't sing the blues, all night long like he used to

The dust that Poncho bit down south, ended up in Lefty's mouth

The day they lay poor Poncho low, Lefty split for Ohio

Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows



All the Federales they say-ay

We could have had him any day

We only let him slip a-away

Out of kindness I suppose



The poets tell how Poncho fe-ell, and Lefty's livin' in cheap hote-els

The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold, and so the story ends we're told

Poncho needs your prayers, it's true, save a few for Lefty too

He only did what he had to do, and now he's growin' old



All the Federales, they say

We could have had him any day

They only let him go so-o long

Out of kindness I suppose



A few grey Federales, they say-ay-ay

We could have had him any day

We only let him go so-o long

Out of kindness I suppose