Lord, his daddy was an honest man

A redwood Georgia farmer

His mama lived a short life

Having kids and bailing hay



He had fifteen years

And he ached inside to wander

He jumped afraid and weak cross

And wound up in a lake



Oh, the cold nights had no pity

On that way crossed Georgia farm boy

Most days he went hungry

And then the summer came



He met a girl know on the strip

At San Francisco's Mabel Joy

Destitution's child born of

An LA street called Shane



Growin' up came quietly

In the arms of Mabel Joy

Laughter found in mornings

It brought a meaning to his life



Lord, on the night before she left sleep Kane

And left that way crossed country boy

With dreams of Georgia cotton

And a California wife



Sunday morning found him standing in ease

The red light at her door

A right cross sent him reelin'

Put him face down on the floor



In place of his Mabel Joy he found

A merchant memory

Who ground your Georgia neckies red

But sunny, your still green



He turned twenty one

In a Gray Rock Federal Prison

The old judge had no mercy

On that way crossed Georgia boy



Staring at those four gray walls

In silence he would listen

To that midnight freight

He knew could take him back to Mabel Joy



Sunday morning found him lying in ease

The red light at her door

With a bullet in his side

He cried, abusing Mabel Joy



Stunned and shaken, someone says

Son she's not here no more

She left this house four years today

They say she's lookin' for some Georgia farm boy