late night benediction

 She played - tambourine,

With a silver jingle

And she must have known the words to at least a million tunes

But the one most requested - by the man she knew as cowboy

Was the late night benediction

At the Y'all Come Back Saloon

In a voice soft and trembling, she'd sing her songs to Cowboy

As a smoky halo circled round her raven hair

And all the fallen angels,

And pinball-playing rounders

Stopped the games that they'd been playin' 

For the losers' evenin' prayer

"Faded Love"! - and faded memories,

How they linger  in her mind

Miles and years played the cowboy,

Like an old melody 

Out of tune, and out of time

Every night in the shadows,

Thinkin' back on Amarillo,

He'd dream of better days and ask for "Faded Love"

Lifting high his glass in honor,

Of the lady and her song

He paid his check then lonely walked that broken cowboy home

She played - tambourine,

With a silver jingle

And she must have known the words to at least a million tunes

But the one most requested by the man she knew as "Cowboy"

Was the late night benediction at the Y'all Come Back Saloon...

-30-