The North Dakota Cowboy

That North Dakota cowboy I still dream of now and then
When I think back on my younger years and he was all I knew of men
He’d never put a hand on me though I know he loved me so
But we’d sing all night ‘till the Sun rolled out like a blanket on the snow

His eyes were green as Norway pines, his laughter warm and pure
But he felt a burden in his mind even love could not have cured
And that North Dakota cowboy, handsome, young, adored
Rode off into the prairie sky in his rusty yellow Ford

You know he didn’t ride or wrangle but he had a cowboy’s soul
I was not the only one by far whose tender heart he stole
Gallant as a soldier from some ancient book of lore
Every year I'm getting older and he just stays twenty-four

When the ice breaks up in Springtime and the little calves are born
Peeking through the thawed out ground are little blades of new green corn
Gram Parsons on the AM dial, smoking with the windows down
I still look for him in Fargo every time I'm back in town