San Francisco Mabel Joy

[Verse 1]
Lord, his daddy was an honest man, just a red dirt Georgia farmer
His momma lived her short life having kids and baling hay
He had fifteen years and he ached inside to wander
He jumped a freight in Waycross and wound up in L.A

[Verse 2]
Cold nights had no pity on that Waycross Georgia farm boy
Most days he went hungry, then the summer came
He met a girl known on the strip as San Francisco's Mabel Joy
Destitution's child born of an L.A. street called Shame

[Verse 3]
Growing up came quietly in the arms of Mabel Joy
Laughter found their mornings, it brought a meaning to his life
Lord on the night before she left
Sleep came and left that Waycross country boy
With dreams of Georgia cotton and a California wife

[Verse 4]
Sunday morning found him standin' 'neath the red light at her door
A right cross sent him reeling, put him face down on the floor
In place of his Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad marine
Who growled, "Your Georgia neck is red but Sonny, you're still green"

[Verse 5]
He turned twenty-one in a gray rock federal prison
The old judge had no mercy for that Waycross Georgia boy
Staring at those four gray walls in silence, Lord, he just listened
To that midnight freight he knew could take him back to Mabel Joy

[Verse 6]
Sunday morning found him lying 'neath the red light at her door
With a bullet in his side, he cried "Have you seen Mabel Joy?"
Stunned and shaken someone said "Son, she don't live here no more
No, she left this house four years today, they say she's looking for some Georgia farm boy"