Older and Colder

Song w/o Music 4

Come over here, brother

pull up a stool

have a drink

that's ok, I'll get it

I just need to talk

you might lend me your ear

I know, it's Shakespeare that said it.

See that big old map hanging on the wall

shows every place I've been

and there's stars up there on those little towns -

heartbreak, misery, and sin.

Miriam was in Louisville

and Linda lived up north

there was Susie in my own home town

Crazy Mamie was the fourth.

I married every one of those girls

wasn't one that I liked best

but they all had arms

growing out of their charms

and they all put bars

up around the nest.

I left those women far behind

without a phone call or a note

and headed down to Mexico

with some money and some hope

I'd find a better place

where people prayed

on their knees - just like they meant it

and forgiveness would come

like a sweet sweet gift

a merciful God would send it.

But it weren't in the cards

it didn't happen

even though I prayed it would

so I came back north

with my hat in my hands

to try to make up

or try to make good.

I was soon to learn

that too much time

had passed and you know I let it

and if you're not on time

the people you hurt

won't let you forget it.

It's a hard and wicked world, my friend

full of roads that never end

and there ain't no truck that's long enough

to haul the hurtin' I been in.

Now I got me a room

in a skid road crash

and a job that don't really pay

that keeps me floating on whiskey fumes

and a couple of meals a day

I'd like to change my life

and do a few good things

don't know how, I'd like to try

but I'm afraid the sweet and the holy might be

too soft for hands like mine.

Thanks a lot, brother

let me get you another

there's some reason you're sitting here

but you don't have to say

and you don't have to pay

and you don't have to shed a tear.

There is one kind favor

I ask of you

think of me down the road

'cause the days are short

and the nights are long

and the older you get

the more you feel the cold

yeah, the older you get

the more you feel the cold.