The Throwback

The life of an abused woman and child by a cultural throwback a migrant family

He looks like a throwback from another day in time

When people lost their lives if they got out of line

He has a great big Bowey knife strapped there on his side

And he isn’t afraid to use it, a fact he doesn’t try to hide

He has a woman with him and a boy about three years old

Both of them are dirty and look like they have a story to be told

They also have a mongrel dog they call One Eyed Jack

That always walks behind them as if covering their back

The woman’s face is spiritless as she holds the hand of her son

Etched with the deep despair of a hard life on the run

And I’m sure that when he counseled her not to get involved with him  she wished she had listened to her Dad

And you can tell she cries for the life he promised her but they have never had

He killed a man in Phoenix for the price of a Denver bus fare

And, though there’s a warrant out for him, he doesn’t seem to care

He lives his life for the moment and to hell with what the future might bring!

And the sad fact is what he did in Phoenix has a much too familiar ring

You can tell she’s afraid of him and, though she would like to leave

She knows he would only hunt her down and there would be no reprieve

The hunting knife would do its job as it has many times in the past

So she knows all she can do is hope the law grabs him at last

She knows eventually it will be over and they will catch up with him

And shortly there after, they will discover all the rest of them

But when they do how will she explain her “dutiful wife” role?

Will they ever believe his cruelty took such a heavy psychological toll?

 

Yes, he looks like a throwback from another day in time

When people lost their lives if they got out of line

He has a great big Bowey knife strapped there on his side

And he isn’t afraid to use it, a fact he doesn’t try to hide