Got out of prison back in ´86 and I found a wife
Walked the clean and narrow
Just tryin´ to stay out and stay alive
Got a job at the rendering plant, it ain´t gonna make me rich
In the darkness before dinner comes
Sometimes I can feel the itch
I got a cold mind to go tripping ´cross that thin line
I´m sick of doin´ straight time

My uncle´s at the evenin´ table, makes his living runnin´ hot cars
Slips me a hundred dollar bill says
"Charlie you best remember who your friends are."
Got a cold mind to go tripping ´cross that thin line
I ain´t makin´ straight time

Eight years in it feels like you´re gonna die
But you get used to anything
Sooner or later it just becomes your life

Kitchen floor in the evening tossin´ my little babies high
Mary´s smiling but she´s watching me out of the corner of her eye
Seems you can´t get any more than half free
I step out onto the front porch and suck the cold air deep inside of me
Got a cold mind to go tripping ´cross that thin line
I´m sick of doin´ straight time

In the basement huntin´ gun and a hacksaw
Sip a beer and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor

Come home in the evening, can´t get the smell from my hands
Lay my head down on the pillow
And go driftin´ off into foreign lands