I'm just trying to earn a living
I'm an old man at thirty-nine
My two kids and my ex-wife
Moved up to Riverside
I'm an agent on the border
I drive the back roads late at night
The mountains east of El Cajon
North of the Tecate line
Where the California summer sun
Will burn right through your soul
But in the winter you can freeze to death
In the California snow
I catch the ones I'm able to
I watch the others slip away
And some I know their faces
I might even know their names
I guess they think that we're all movie stars
And millionaires
I guess they think their dreams and hopes
Will all come true up here
And I bet the weather's warmer
Way down in Mexico
And no one ever warned them of
The California snow
Last winter I found a man and wife
And it was just about daybreak
Lying in a frozen ditch
North of the interstate
I wrapped him in a blanket
Lord, but she'd already died
We shipped the man on back alone
South of the border line
And I don't know where they came from
Or where they'd hoped to go
But he carried her body all night long
Through the California snow
Man, the things I've seen up here
Make me think about my life
I might go back to Riverside
And try to fix things with my wife
Or maybe I'll just get in the truck
And drive as far as I can go
Away from all these ghosts that haunt
The California snow
And the California summer sun
Will burn right through your soul
But in the winter you can freeze to death
In the California snow
In the winter you can freeze to death
In the California snow