Tom Russell: El Llano Estacado

If I may trust your love, she cried
And you would have me for a bride
Ride the wild plain and bring
A flask of water from the Mustang Spring
Fly as o'er the eagle's wing
On the Llano Estacado

He smiled and left without a word
Grabbed up saddle, bit, and spur
Cinched his horse and rode away
through prickly pear and old Maguey,
vanished with the dying day
on the Llano Estacado.

All through the night he gallops on
Daylight broke, he rode alone
Spurred his horse and drew no rein
Across that dry, forsaken plain
Until the Mustang Spring he gained
On the Llano Estacado.

Crazy with love, in Enamorado!
Alone out on the Llano Estacado.

A bitter rest, a few short drinks
Across the spring a buzzard waits
His flask was full and so he turned
To gain the bride he soon would earn
But the sky bright red it burned
On the Llano Estacado

Oh how this shining desert glow
His eyes were burning as he rode
Was this the dream or drunken one
Or was he really riding on
Was that a skull that gleamed and shone
On the Llano Estacado

Oh hold onto his horse he cried
Ignore the devils in the sky
Bear up a little longer yet
His cracked lips he longed to wet
His mouth was black with blood and sweat
On the Llano Estacado

Crazy with love, in Enamorado!
Alone out on the Llano Estacado.

Still against his chest he held
The water flask for her he filled
He longed to drink but well he knew
If empty her love he'd lose
But his raging thirst it grew
On the Llano Estacado

His horse went down he wandered on
Dizzy, blinded and alone
And you out there with watery eyes
Think of how it is to die
Beneath the cruel, uncloudy sky
Of the Llano Estacado

At last he stumbled, then he fell
His race was run he knew full well
Raising to his lips the flask
His face a blistered, painful mask
Drank too, no more could she ask
Of the Llano Estacado

Crazy with love, in Enamorado!
He died out on the Llano Estacado.

That night at the Presido
Beneath the torchlights way below
She danced and never thought of him
A victim of a woman's whim
Lying with that death like grin
On the Llano Estacado

Crazy with love, in Enamorado!
Alone out on the Llano Estacado.

Crazy with love, in Enamorado!
Alone out on the Llano Estacado.