Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die / Reincarnation - Michael Martin Murphey

Where do cowboys go when they die?

Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye?

Where the water is clean and the grass grows free

And there ain’t a cloud in the sky

«What is reincarnation?»

A cowboy asked his friend

His friend replied «Well Son

It happens when your life has reached its end

You see, they comb your hair and they wash your neck

And they clean your fingernails

And they you down in a batted box

Far away from life’s prevails

Now the box and you goes in a hole

That’s been dug into the ground

And reincarnation starts

When you’re planted beneath the mound

You see the box melts down just like the clods (?)

With you who is inside

And then, you’re just beginning your transformation ride»

Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye

Where do cowboys go when they die?

«Well, in a while some rain’s

Gonna come and fall upon the ground

'Til one day on your lonely little grave

A little flower will be found

And say a hoss should wander by

And graze upon the flower

That once was you but now becomes

A vegetative bower

That little flower that the hoss done ate up

With all his other feed

Becomes bone and fat and muscle

Essentials for the steed

But some he’s consumed, he can’t use

So it passes through

Finally it lays there on the ground

This thing that once was you

And then say that I should wander by

And gaze upon the ground

And wonder and ponder

On this object that I’ve found

Well it sure makes me think of reincarnation

Of life and death and such

And I ride away concludin'

You ain’t changed all that much"

Where do cowboys go when they die?

Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye?

Where the water is clean and the grass grows free

And there ain’t a cloud in the sky