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