Claire Lynch - Barbed Wire Boys lyrics

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