Gunmetal Gray

I was a buck toothed, white trash, sleepy-eyed milltown kid
Nobody ever took a note of nothing that I ever did
I was sneaking a sip from my Daddy’s corn liquor still
Hiding out by the river with the moon and the whippoorwill

The leaves started cracklin’ in the woods something coming my way
I ducked behind a willow and threw that whiskey bottle away
I heard a voice cuttin’ through the darkness chilled me to the bone
Like a Sunday morning sermon spitting out fire and brimstone

I never saw what happened
I never saw a thing
It went down so fast in a flash
Of gun-metal gray

For the next thirty seconds the crickets didn’t even breathe
Then I bent back the branches ‘cause I knew I had to take a peek
I saw a big black boot on a shovel break the cold hard ground
And a man on a mission making sure there wasn’t nothing found

He never saw me looking
And I never said a thing
But that one night wrong and right
Turned gun-metal gray

Maybe I should’ve run straight to the Sheriff
And sung like a bird said I know what he done
The next day everybody’s talking ‘bout the preacher’s young wife
Skipping town with the deacon’s son

Twenty years later I’m the man no one claims to know
But when they need a little something they know exactly where to go
And as for the preacher he’s still packing them in the pews
Would they be singing Hallelujah if I told them everything I knew

We all got secrets to keep
We’ll all have hell to pay
Nothing ‘bout life is black and white
It’s gun-metal gray