One Man's Trash (Welcome the Traveler Home: the Winfield Songs, 2004)
Well, I was twelve years old, just a wild young buck When Daddy gave me a foal from the old brood mare And with a spring full of training and a summer full of luck We won every race at the county fair He used to run like the wind so wild and free But now he can't pull a plow and she's crippled in the knee And my Daddy wants to send him to the factory But he's a whole lot more to me than hoof and hide And he still loves to take me on a long slow ride
CHORUS
One man's trash is another man's treasure One man's ceiling is another man's floor One man's pain is another man's pleasure And nothing's for certain, mister, that's for sure No, nothing's for certain, mister, that's for sure
She was singing on the corner so soft and slow As the crowds pushed by on the avenue With her old hands gnarled and her back bent low She played her guitar so clean and true And one or two would stop if they had a little time Searching in their pockets for a nickel or a dime Searching all the faces like she's looking for a sign And when I dropped six bits in her old tin cup She had a hundred dollar smile when she looked on up
CHORUS
I saw him by the roadside, looking crooked and funny Stuffing tins cans in an old brown sack I was out for a run and he was out for the money He gave me one look and then he never looked back No, he didn't have a dollar and he didn't have shame And I never knew his story and I never got his name But every now and then I had to wonder, all the same How he'd ever fill his belly at a nickel on the pound But he was gone from the ditches when I came back around
And I shouldn't have to tell you cause you know it's true 'Cause you can see them in the city, in the country, in the town Hard working folks like me and you Who rise right up when they're beat on down Who struggle all their lives just as hard as they're able And only get the crumbs from the rich man's table Makes me think about the king who was born in the stable Or how they marched with the singing and the trumpets' sound Till the walls of the city came a-tumbling down.