The Man Who Would Speak True - Blitzen Trapper

I had a lover her name was Grace

She found me down in a lonely place

She dug me out with an old jaw bone

She dressed me up for to take me home

She fed me words that I could not taste

For I had no tongue it had been replaced

By a green and

a growing flower which grew

And I knew if I ever spoke

I would speak true

We lived together in an old hotel

A broke-down palace with a wishing well

The neighbor girl taught me how to spell

And how to steal what I could not sell

But I fed my tongue on the Devils rum

In a roadhouse run by a godless bum

On a drunken night with a stolen gun

I shot my lover as she made to run

The judge said Son what have you done

But I didnt speak a word

no I didnt speak one

And the judge sent me away

And they buried my Grace

yeah the very next day

They sent me out on a midnight train

In the rain rolling down

through the dusty plain

Four men sitting with an old shotgun

Silver stars pinned on every one

They busted my mouth

for to get at my tongue

To see just how this had all begun

So I opened my mouth

like a dragons breath

I only spoke truth

but it only brought death

And I laid those boys to rest

For the truth in truth

is a terrible jest

For there ain't no road

but the road to home

There ain't no crops

but the ones youve sown

And if you learn one thing from me

You better guard your tongue

like your enemy

I came to ground in a one-horse town

On the western rim

where the sun goes down

Where a branded man might start again

For to right his wrong for to lose his sin

But my tongue kept growing

it would not cease

I grew quite weary

couldn't get no release

So I went to the magistrate

and turned myself in

Picked up a shovel

and he made the grin

And they planted me by the sea

Now the birds of the air

make nests on me