Laura Elsa lived a little while down the way
Walked her baby for miles through the heat and through the rain
I watched her struggle and wring the perspiration from her clothes
Bug-eyed and wondering where all her buried resentment goes
Laura Elsa pulls her limping boy to her side
Says he got too brave in the face of some poor sad man's pride
Yeah, she don't say much but I saw her jaw get real tight
Once something's got in deep you can't pull the wool out of that dye
Called her mama before they came to take her away
Dragged him to that precious truck, carried on and rumbled down the lane
'Tween grape vines, they'll find him in a nine-inch grave
"It's done. He's dead." She said, hung up and walked away.
Small town whispers through leaves and vines and soil
I seen their son with his grey face milling round the hall
News of Laura's man spread, and once they learned his fate
Townsfolk shrugged their shoulders, better without him anyway