[Verse 1]
Dust on my boots
Gold in my saddlebag
Blood on a wanted sign
Nailed to a leaning shack
I took what I could
Never stayed too long
Name carved in tavern doors
Like the words of a crooked song
[Verse 2]
Night by the river
Cards on a rotted crate
Heard a girl screaming soft
Out by the rusted gate
Man with a razor smile
Hand on her shaking wrist
I drew, didn’t even think
Smoke, then an empty hiss
[Chorus]
And the reaper stepped out of the shadow
Hat brim low, coat black as coal
Said, “You been stealing from the living
And the dead still call your soul
But you dragged one life from that graveyard
In a world that don’t give much back
So I’ll give you a second chance in the dust, son
You can turn or you can stay on that track”
[Verse 3]
He laid a cold finger
Right on my hammer hand
Showed me a burning town
Showed me a quiet land
One road with iron bars
One road with an open gate
Said, “Boy, you choose tonight
Or I choose your fate”
[Chorus]
And the reaper stepped out of the shadow
Hat brim low, coat black as coal
Said, “You been stealing from the living
And the dead still call your soul
But you dragged one life from that graveyard
In a world that don’t give much back
So I’ll give you a second chance in the dust, son
You can turn or you can stay on that track”
[Bridge]
I dropped that stolen treasure
Watched it sink in the mud (oh yeah)
Heard every name I’d buried
Rise up like a flood
He nodded once, then vanished
Like smoke in a gust of wind
Left me with shaking fingers
And a heart I’d never lend
[Chorus]
Now the reaper waits somewhere in the shadow
Hat brim low, counting what I owe
Said, “You paid a little with your courage
You can pay the rest slow”
So I ride these roads like a penance
Leave what I took, give what I can back
On this second chance in the dust I was given
Tryin’ to keep my soul on the track
[Outro]
Dust on my boots
Empty old saddlebag
One girl safe in the dark
And a death card I ain’t played yet, dragged behind my ragged flag