Tom Ames' Prayer

Everyone in Nacadoches knew Tom Ames

Would come to some bad end

Well the Sheriff had caught him stealing chickens and such

By the time that he was ten

And one day, his daddy took a ten dollar bill

And he tucked it in his hand

He said, "I can tell you're headed for trouble, son

And your mama wouldn't understand"

So he took that money and his brothers old bay

And he left without a word of thanks

Fell in with a crowd in some border town

Took to robbing banks

Well, outside the law your luck will run out fast

And a few years came and went

Until he's trapped in an alley in Abilene

With all but four shells spent

And he realized praying was the only thing

That he hadn't ever tried

Well, he wasn't sure he knew quite how

But he looked up to the sky

Said, "You don't owe me nothing and as far as I know

Lord, don't owe nothing to You

And I ain't asking for a miracle, Lord

Just a little bit of luck will do"

"And You know I ain't never prayed before

But it always seemed to me

If praying is the same as begging, Lord

I don't take no charity"

"Yeah, but right now, Lord, with my back to the wall

Can't help but recall

How they nearly hung me for stealing a horse

In Fort Smith, Arkansas"

"Judge Parker said, 'Guilty!'

And the gavel came down just like a cannon shot

And I went away quietly

And I began to file and plot"

"Well they sent the preacher down to my cell

He said, 'The Lord is your only hope

He's the only friend that you going to have

When you hit the end of Parker's rope'"

"Well, I guess he could have kept on preaching till Christmas

But he turned his back on me

I put a homemade blade to that golden throat

And asked the deputy for the key"

"Well, it ain't the first close call I ever had

I'm sure you already know

I had some help from you, Lord, and the Devil himself

It's been strictly touch and go"

"Yeah, but who in the hell am I talking to?

There ain't no one here but me"

And then he cocked both his pistols and he spit in the dirt

And he walked out in the street