Livin on the road my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean.
Now you wear your skin like iron.
Your breath as hard as kerosene.

You weren't your momma's only boy, but her favorite one it seems.
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams.

Pancho was a bandit boy, his horse was fast as polished steel.
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel.

Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico.
Nobody heard his dyin words, but that's the way it goes.

All the Federales say, they could've had him any day,
They only let him slip away, out of kindness I suppose.

Lefty he can't sing the blues all night long like he used to.
The dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth.
The day they laid poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows.

All the Federales say, they could've had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose.

The boys tell how old Pancho fell, and Lefty's livin in cheap hotels.
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold
And so the story ends we're told;

Pancho needs your prayers it's true, but save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do, and now he's growing old.

All the Federales say, they could've had him any day
They only let him go so long, out of kindness I suppose.

A few gray Federales say, they could've had him any day
They only let him go so long, out of kindness I suppose.

--"Pancho and Lefty" Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard