Bruce Springsteen - Black Cowboys Lyrics
Raney William's playground was among Haven's streetsWhere he ran past melted candles and flower wreathsNames and photos of the young black facesWhose death and blood consecrated these placesRaney's mother said Raney stay at my sideFor you are my blessing, you are my prideIt's your love here that keeps my soul aliveI want you to come home from school and stay insideRaney'd do his work and put his books awayThere was a channel showed a Western movie everydayAnd that brought him home books on the black cowboys of the Oklahoma rangeThe Seminole scouts that fought the tribes of the Great PlainsSummer come and the days grew longRaney always had his mother's smile to depend onAlong the street of stray bullets he made his wayTo the warmth of her arms at the end of each dayCome the Fall, the rain flooded these homesIn Ezekiel's valley of dry bonesIt fell hard and dark to the groundIt fell without a soundAnd they took up with a man whose business was the boulevardWhose smile was fixed in a face that was never off guardIn the pipes 'neath the kitchen sink his secrets are keptIn the day, behind drawn curtains in the next bedroom he sleptAnd she got lost in the daysThe smile Raney depended on dusted awayThe arms that held him were no more his ownbonesIn the kitchen, Raney slipped his hand between the pipesFrom a brown bag pulled five hundred dollar bills and stuck it in his coat sideStood in the dark at his mother's bedBrushed her hair and kissed her eyesIn the twilight Raney walked to the station on streets of stoneThrough Pennsylvania and Ohio his train drifted onThrough the small towns of Indiana the big train creptAs he lay his head back on his seat and sleptHe woke and the towns gave way to muddy fields of greenCorn and cotton and endless nothing in betweenOver the rutted hills of Oklahoma the red sun slipped and was goneThe moon rose and stripped the earth to its bone
