The Pila Song

The wind was hot and the sun was hard
 I was beat and my mare was tired
 And the fence line I was riding stretched forever
 My mind drifted off and back
 To Carmella and her heart of black
 And the things that she? d said to me yesterday
 So when the boss sent me out checking fences
 I was glad cause I knew that it meant
 That I could spend some time out all alone
 I wiped the sweat that stung my eyes
 Looked up and I realized
 That I was coming up on the south windmill
 The concrete tank stood there beside
 The water trough that it supplied
 When the trough was full the mill could keep on
 pumping & pumping & pumping
 So we drank deep from the shallow trough
 And wetting my hair gave me the thought
 That a swim in that big tank might cool me down
 So I shucked my duds and hung? em on the fence
 Climbed the wires to reach the rim
 Pulled myself on up and jumped right in
 The water was cool down underneath
 But deeper than I thought it? d be
 There was no ladder and the walls were slick with moss
 Sure enough I got cooled down
 When I found I had no way out
 And the thought of a rat in a feed bin chilled my
 blood
 Well, at first I laughed at the fix I was in
 Then my troubles all sank in
 Without some help I was there to stay
 I screamed and clawed to no avail
 Till dignity and voice had failed
 I wore my fingers down on those damned walls
 I marked the time with the windmillÂ? s shade
 Passing cross my mossy grave
 And the cows coming to water twice a day
 I always figured lightning strike
 Or rattlesnake or barroom fight
 Would do me in, not some Mexican rose
 The fact is I was hot and dumb
 Struck stupid by the sun and love
 So on the one hand I guess sheÂ? d played her part
 Through all that time I cussed her lots
 But I cussed myself the most because
 I had not looked before I leapt
 Now overhead an eagle soars
 And I smell rain coming from the north
 I wonder if sheÂ? ll even shed one tear
 Just one tear over me
 Just one tear over me.