It Takes Money (A Farmer Meets Reality)
by Michael Doyle

The land and you
Are everything to me.
The mortgage is due,
And hellhounds are dogging me.

All that I want to do
Is to farm this land.
A simple, honest farm and you,
But the Lord gave me a steady hand.

It takes money 
To raise our family.
One bad harvest isn't funny.
But two might just end you and me.

They call me the hunter, night and day.
Without a bullet wasted, is what they say.
I'll do what I have to do
For the good of me and you.

So, I'll fall in with the law man,
Selling him the use of my gun hand.
Riding down to the Dead Line
Where I'll make more than one rogue mine.

It takes money 
To raise our family.
One bad harvest isn't funny.
But two might just end you and me.

Forty acres and this old mule, 
It's what it takes to buy the fuel.
At the end of this ole war,
I would have thought our souls were worth more.

I'm going down to the place with no laws.
It's a rough patch filled with outlaws.
Some seek after some kind of paradise, 
It's hard to find it between the Devil's lies.

It takes money 
To raise our family.
One bad harvest isn't funny.
But two might just end you and me.

So, I'll fall in with the law man,
Lord have mercy on my gun hand.
Riding down to the Dead Line
For the good of us, I'll make that rogue mine.

Death rides hard under tall blue skies,
I can see that hidden in your dusky eyes.
You and me watch the turkey vultures soar,
Our eyes on each other, certain there will be no more.

It takes money 
To raise our family.
One bad harvest isn't funny.
But two might just end you and me.

(c) August 15, 2026   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved