That old Mexican man picks up cans in the road side dust
They say that things turned bad for him when the oil boom went bust
He had a life down there in Houston good job and a loving wife but he
Killed a man in Corpus now he's serving out his life
A shell of a Mexican man, a number is all he is
A proud pure blood slowly drained away by the life a convict lives
And life without parole when he told her what he'd done
Its a damn shame what a man can do with a angry soul and an old war gun

Oh Oh can you hear it comin'
Oh Oh can you hear it now
Oh Oh can you hear it comin'
Oh Oh it's comin' down

After the rigs he got a job at the local A&P
Sackin' up bags for rich old men just to save his family
And in his broken tongue he'd cuss 'em for things they never knew
And in his mind he knew the cost of the life he would have to choose

So one hot summer night with no gulf breeze at all
He kissed his little girls good night told his wife she would get a call.
He walked out of the house that night through bars no one could see
Skyline blurred by the old mans tears he's gonna set his family free.

Oh Oh can you hear it comin'
Oh Oh can you hear it now
Oh Oh can you hear it comin'
Oh Oh it's comin' down.

His kids are all grown up and they moved away
His wife met some kind of artist man now she's off in Santa Fe
And I tried to talk to him once, its hell in here without a friend
But he just turned his back on me and started praying on the beads again
So someday soon I guess he'll die in here don't you know that's the way it goes
Cold gray eyes and a broken down face nobody really knows
But every week he gets a letter and every week tears they fall like rain
Cause every week there's a post mark and every week it reads Santa Fe.

Oh Oh can you hear it comin'
Oh Oh can you hear it now
Oh Oh can you hear it comin'
Oh Oh it's comin' down
Oh Oh can you hear it comin'