A lawman learns early… That some things can’t be fixed. But nobody tells you what to do… When evil’s sleeping in your arms. After Blue and Cowboy died Murphy’s never felt the same, Joe was buried by the cottonwoods, And Elsie in the shade. I walked them dusty streets alone Hat pulled down low… Ever since they laid sweet Elsie down I felt like no one is home. Rosie quit her red silk dresses, Quit the painted smiles and gin, Started sleeping in my room When the nightmares rolled back in. Two lonely people holding close In a town already gone… Like maybe grief could warm a bed Till all the ghosts moved on. But the wind knows every secret That the dead don’t get to choose, And Murphy’s walls still whisper low About the loves that some folks lose. Joe beneath the frozen ground, Elsie cold and gone… And I held onto Miss Rosie Long after all hope had moved on. Some nights she’d wake up trembling, Sweat shining on her skin, I’d hold her through the darkness Till she drifted off again. Never said I loved her… Lawmen ain’t built that way… Just wrapped my arms around her Like I feared she’d fade away. Rain beat hard one bitter evening, Fire burned down low and weak, Rosie staring at the ceiling Too exhausted not to speak. She whispered, “Sheriff… there’s things buried Deeper than the graves outside…” And the room went still as judgment As confession cracked her wide. Rosie said to me “Vale was easy… just a little poison you see… My dear husband deserved far worse than death. But Blue and that Cowboy… I couldn’t leave loose ends like that. Cowboy begged me not to do it, Said he loved her honest and true… But I shot him on the edge of town… Then I put one through Baby Blue too.” Thats what Rosie said! Lord, I felt the whole world twisting, Every oath inside me split… Blue and Cowboy… all this time… Rosie had put an end to all of it. Still she curled there on my chest Like someone needing saved… And I held the woman softly Who’d sent four souls to early graves. And the wind knew every secret Long before this lawman did, Three graves behind old Murphy’s Held another thing she hid. Blue beside the stranger cowboy, Joe beneath the pines… Vale cold beneath the dirt… And Rosie crying for the last time. I kissed the top of Rosie’s hair then, Hands shaking hard and slow, Thought about sweet Elsie smiling From a life so long ago. Law was all I’d ever trusted, Only thing that stayed upright… Now the woman in my arms Had murdered love itself that night. Rosie whispered, “Hold me tighter…” God forgive me… I did just that. My forearm closed around her throat Before I could’ve stopped. She never saw me crying As I carried her outside… Through sleeping streets and muddy dark On that last cold midnight ride. Past Joe’s grave and Blue’s fresh marker, Past the place where Cowboy lay, To the cottonwood by the old road Where Elsie swung one day. I tied Rosie’s rope up gentle, Hands unsteady from pain and cold… Then beside Miss Rosie’s noose I fixed another for my own. Rosie woke with bare feet swinging, Gasping wild against the dawn, Saw me standing right beside her But by then I was already gone. She tried to speak but the rope pulled tighter, Her hands clawed for me through the dawn… Then I kicked away that wooden chair And let the dark come take us both. Now the wind cries through Murphy’s graveyard Where Rosie Lies between weeping trees, Blue and Cowboy side by side there, Joe beneath the frozen leaves. Vale and Elsie, the horse thief too… Every soul this town chewed through… And me beside my Elsie When the night wind cries cold and blue. cold and blue cold and blue cold and blue
