How my mind works

I was laying in bed last night, late, when a lyric floated thru my brain...

"...from a chill that closed her eyes..."

I thought about it for a bit, trying to recall who sang it, and what the rest of the words were. I got a few more words after a minute,

"and I was left to grow up on my own"

...when I identified it as a Johnny Cash song, one I have not heard or thought of for 30 years, at least. Here it is, as I remember it, without having checked any lyric sites.

Orphan Of The Road by Johnny Cash

The carny show and the rodeo shared a three day stand
A cowboy met a fiery carny queen
....
They laughed and loved and shared short-lived dreams

But the carny show and the rodeo went their separate ways
..... ... soon moved on
And I was born on a winter morn to the dark-eyed carny queen
The too-late son of something that was gone

A black sheep child that grew up wild
From a seed the four winds sowed
Unwanted son of ice and fire
An orphan of the road

I was still a child when my mother died of a chill that closed her eyes
And I was left to grow up on my own
Without a name, too wild to tame, and no-one cared to try
So mostly I was mostly left alone

A black sheep child that grew up wild
From a seed the four winds sowed
Unwanted son of ice and fire
An orphan of the road

.... and old boxcars, hobo ... camps
And I was left to drift from town to town
A surging flood of restless blood flowed inside my veins
I'd never find the time to settle down

-I don't remember how he arrives there, but he finds an old cowboy dying in a boxcar, saying this.

He said "I tried to find her, but they told me that she died
And that she'd left an only son behind
I tried to find him, but I never did,
But I know I could rest in peace
If I could just see him once before I died."

I found a match and I quickly scratched it into flickering flame
And I held it close as I gently raised his head
"My mother, sir," I said of her, "I have her same dark eyes"
He smiled, the cowboy smiled, then was dead.

A black sheep child that grew up wild
From a seed the four winds sowed
Unwanted son of ice and fire
An orphan of the road


Some people can remember numbers; I can remember lyrics. Now I will go and check the lyric sites, to see how I did.