Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die / Reincarnation

(album: Cowboy Songs - 1990)

Where do cowboys go when they die?
Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye?
Where the water is clean and the grass grows free
And there ain't a cloud in the sky

"What is reincarnation?" A cowboy asked his friend
His friend replied "Well, son
It happens when your life has reached its end
You see, they comb your hair and they wash your neck
And they clean your fingernails
And they you down in a batted box
Far away from life's prevails
Now the box and you goes in a hole
That's been dug into the ground
And reincarnation starts
When you're planted beneath the mound
You see the box melts down just like the clods
With you is inside
And then, you're just beginning your transformation ride"

Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye
Where do cowboys go when they die?

Well, in a while some rain's
Gonna come and fall upon the ground
'Til one day on your lonely little grave
A little flower will be found
And say a hoss should wander by
And graze upon the flower
That once was you but now becomes
A vegetative bower
That little flower that the hoss done ate up
With all his other feed
Becomes bone and fat and muscle
Essentials for the steed
But some he's consumed, he can't use
So it passes through
Finally it lays there on the ground
This thing that once was you

And then say that I should wander by
And gaze upon the ground
And wonder and ponder
On this object that I've found
Well, it sure makes me think of reincarnation
Of life and death and such
And I ride away concluding
You ain't changed all that much

Where do cowboys go when they die?
Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye?
Where the water is clean and the grass grows free
And there ain't a cloud in the sky