Left Alone - Malcolm Holcombe, Iris DeMent

He was a Viet Nam veteran, a killing machine

Made it back alive without a scrape of mean

Good friend of mine, reckon thirty-five years

Not one cross word looking eye to eye

Now you don’t know better

Strung out in the cold

And you don’t know better

When you got no home

Now you don’t know better

When you’re left alone to die

She was as pretty as a picture, did little harm

Another burned out night, we were doing wrong

Never hugged and kissed 'er, but her heart beat strong

Another burned out night, we were doing wrong

Now you don’t know better

Strung out in the cold

And you don’t know better

When you got no home

Now you don’t know better

When you’re left alone to die

Upside down at the bottom of the steps

In a pool of blood ain’t nobody left

Just me and Drew and a New York cop

Working on change and the falling out

Now you don’t know better

Strung out in the cold

And you don’t know better

When you got no home

Now you don’t know better

When you’re left alone to die

I see pictures every day in the headline news

And I cuss and pray at the world and the blues

And I mow the yard and I go out to eat

Still I’m able to work but I just can’t feel

And I don’t know better

Strung out in the cold

And I don’t know better

But I got a home

And I don’t know better

When i leave you alone to die