We were just two cowboys, branding one hot summer day
The cattle that we had in the pen
Damn it was hot, but no other way
‘Cause tomorrow we’d be back there doing it again

I was ropin’ the calves, then I looked up to the sky
There was an airplane flying real low to the ground
Circled us like a buzzard, I wondered why
He was looking around

Then the bird flew away, wanted a place to land
He had other birds waiting for his load
‘Cause they were of the same criminal band
He tried to set it down on an old paved road

It was hotter than Hell that hot summer day
The air was dead, he was about to be
They came from Mexico, that was their way
They were hauling the Devil's grass, what we got to see

Then dirt shot fifty feet in the air and a noise from Hell
A crashing bird, dead on the ground
We went to see what the story would tell
The dead bird was not making a sound

Four were in the bird, they fled the scene
The pilot was left for dead on a wing of the plane
He was scalped, his brain could be seen
He was out, but in a lot of pain

Twisted steel and a screwed-up life
That’s the price that he had to pay
God told him he wasn’t a bird, he got a lot of strife
For hauling the Devil's grass that day