Come to the door Ma, and the chain I was passin through, I got caught in the rain nothing I want, nothin that you need say Just let me lay for a while and Ill be on my way
I was no than a kid, when you put me on. the Southern Queen With the police on my back, I fled all the way down to New I fought in the dockyards, and with the I made I the fight was my home, and blood was my trade
Baton Rouge, Ponchitoula, and town Well, they paid me their money Ma, and I knocked the men I did I did, well it came easily Restraint and mercy Ma were strangers to me
I fought champion Jack Thompson, in a field of mud The poured through the canvas tent,and mixed with our blood In the twelfth I my tongue, over my broken jaw and I stood over him, I his bloody body, right into the Well the rang and rang, and still I kept on and on and on I felt my glove leather, slip between his skin and bone
Then the women and the money came fast and the days I lost The women red, the money green, but the were black I fought for the men in their silk suits, to lay down their I took my good share Ma, ya see I, I no regrets
Then I took the fix at the state armory, big John McDowell oh, From high in the rafters, I watched fall As they raised his arm my stomach twisted. and the sky it black I stuffed my bag their good money ma, and I never looked back
So understand, in the end Ma, every man the game If you me one different, then speak out his name Ma, if my now, now you dont recognize Then just open the door, and look your dark eyes I ask of you nothin, not a kiss, not a smile, Just open the door and let me lay for a while
Now the gray rain is fallin, my fightins done So in the fields and alleys,ya see I, I take all who come If youre a better man than me, come on, and step up to the line, right to the line me your money , and speak out your crime
Now theres nothin I want Ma, nothin that you say Just let me lay down for a and Ill be on my way
Tonight in a shipyard, a man draws a circle in the I to the center, and I take off my shirt I him for the cuts, the scars, the pain, Man no time can I hard to the left, and I strike to the face