Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free

Johnny Cash, “Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie”

 

Lots of cheating going on in country songs,

Lots of sinning,

 

Drinking — worse than drinking — honky-tonking.

Wrack, domestic rubble, crying babies, hysteria.

 

Lots of people breaking Jesus promises

In “them” songs — adultery galore, lonely rooms,

 

Like the one I’m sitting in now,

My own little lone prairie,

 

After cheating on the Times crossword puzzle

And laying hoodoo curses on a president.