[Verse 1]
Got out of prison back in '86
And I found a wife
Walked the clean and narrow
Just trying to stay out and stay alive

[Verse 2]
Got a job at the rendering plant
It ain't going to make me rich
In the darkness before dinner comes
Sometimes I can feel the itch

[Chorus]
I got a cold mind
To go tripping 'cross that thin line
I'm sick of doing straight time

[Verse 3]
My uncle's at the evening table
Makes his living running hot cars
Slips me a hundred-dollar bill
Says, "Charlie, you best remember who your friends are"

[Chorus]
I got a cold mind
To go tripping 'cross that thin line
I ain't making straight time
[Bridge]
Eight years in
It feels like you're gonna die
But you get used to anything
Sooner or later, it just becomes your life

[Verse 4]
Kitchen floor in the evening
Tossing my little babies high
Mary's smiling, but she's watching me
Out of the corner of her eye

[Verse 5]
Seems you can't get
Any more than half-free
Step out onto the front porch
And suck the cold air deep inside of me

[Chorus]
I got a cold mind
To go tripping 'cross that thin line
I'm sick of doing straight time

[Verse 6]
In the basement
Hunting gun and a hacksaw
Sip a beer and thirteen
Inches of barrel drop to the floor
[Verse 7]
Come home in the evening
Can't get the smell from my hands
Lay my head down on the pillow
And go drifting off into foreign lands