Barbed Wire Boys Lyrics - Whatcha Gonna Do - Claire Lynch

Well I come from the rural Midwest 

It's the land I love more than all the rest 

It's the place I know and understand 

Like a false-front building 

Like the back of my hand 

And the men I knew when I was coming up 

Were sober as coffee in a Styrofoam cup 

There were Earls and Rays, Harlans and Roys 

They were full-grown men 

They were barbed wire boys 

They raised grain and cattle on the treeless fields 

Sat at the head of the table and prayed before meals 

Prayed an Our Father and that was enough 

Pray more than that and you couldn't stay tough 

Tough as the busted thumbnails on the weathered hands 

They worked the gold plate off their wedding bands 

And they never complained, no they never made noise 

And they never left home 

These barbed wire boys 

'Cos their wildest dreams were all fenced in 

By the weight of family, by the feeling of sin 

That'll prick your skin at the slightest touch 

If you reach too far, if you feel too much 

So their deepest hopes never were expressed 

Just beat like bird's wings in the cage of their chest 

All the restless longings, all the secret joys 

That never were set free 

In the barbed wire boys 

And now one by one they're departing this earth 

And it's clear to me now 'xactly what they're worth 

Oh they were just like Atlas holding up the sky 

You never heard him speak, you never saw him cry 

But where do the tears go, that you never shed 

Where do the words go, that you never said 

Well there's a blink of the eye, there's a catch in the voice 

That is the unsung song 

Of the barbed wire boys