South Dakota

It was the 23rd of May and I heard the sergeant say,
 "Fuck it, round up the usual suspects and call it a day
 We've got no time to mess around
 And I'm not dying in this shit hole town for a soldier's pay"
 it was too good to be true, but my discharge came through
 And I was on the first bird out that I could find
 Rode that C-17 into Stuttgart
 Fall roundup on my mind
 When my brothers picked me up
 We got way deep in our cups
 We must've tore old Rapid city down
 My big brother Jack said "Boy it's good to see you back
 What you gonna do now, what you gonna do now?"
 Because there ain't much between the Pole and South Dakota
 And barbed wire won't stop the wind
 You won't get nothing here but broke and older
 If I was you I might re-up again
 Well, we had good rain this year
 Dad fed in some charolais steers
 got them way cheap out of Texas
 Because of the drouth
 We put them out on oats
 They hadn't yet grown their winter coats away down south
 It was barely even fall
 But that blizzard got them all
 Left them sprawled across the pasture Stiff as boards
 You take a sharp knife in your hand
 Skin them out while you still can
 And curse the lord
 Curse the lord
 These old hides are not worth much
 So we'll pitch them off the truck
 Pile them up by the horse trough in the lot
 Because they sell by the pound
 They weigh like lead if you wet them down
 And they're all we got
 With a gas lease or two we might've just made due
 But there's nothing under this ground worth a dime
 Now the sheriff's on his way and it's damn sure not our day
 It's just our time