Smoke rose high behind me
To Magdalena I walked
I found a caravan of Okies
So stopped and there we talked
They were headed whence I came
They said with dirt caked smiles
Their crops were dead, their farms forsaken
And they'd wandered many miles
I offered up a little food
But they kindly declined
Having suffered many hardships
Hunger, they just didn't mind
They told me I looked sick
They asked me to lie down
They offered me some medicine
Which I greedily chugged down
Strangers in the desert
Burdened down by strife
Strangers in the desert
You can trust them with your life
They want to help you out
They want you to feel better
They'll do everything they can for you
Right down to the letter
They bowed their heads to pray for me
And sang a bitter hymn
I suspected I'd been tricked
As my vision throbbed and dimmed
My poisoned blood curdled
As I saw through their disguise
A thousand eyes burned through me
As they buzzed about like flies
Why do I deserve this?
I cried out to the wastes
Was I born merely to suffer
Until my grave I face?
The world was blotted out by light
As I fell to my knees
I heard them buzz and swarm about
Deaf to all my desperate pleas
Strangers in the desert
Burdened down by strife
Strangers in the desert
You can trust them with your life
They want to help you out
They want you to feel well
They want to lay their eggs underneath your skin
And watch you bloat and swell
I woke up under scortching sun
Blood crusted on my hands
Destitute and all alone
Abandoned in this barren land
The venom surged behind my eyes
As I lay there and wept
I felt my life sink in the sand
So I gave up and slept