As I walked out in the streets of Topeka
As I walked out in Topeka one day
I spied a young cowpoke, dressed in pink gingham
Limp were his wrists, for the cowpoke was gay

I could see by his outfit that he was a cowpoke
He'd poke those cows from the dawn til he'd sleep
And when he'd awaken on the very next morning
He'd go to the barn and that's where he'd poke sheep

"It was there in the village I used to go cruising
There in the village I used to go gay
First to the bathhouse and then to the flophouse
That's where I caught a dose, now I'm dying today

Send six mincing faggots to bear up my coffin
Six bull-dyke lesbians wailing a song
Down in the grim valley where Sodomites rally
Too late, this young cowpoke now knows he's done wrong

The virus spread slowly, in places lowly
Until it infected my deviant crew
Heedless, defiant, we took no precautions
Now all of my buddies are perishing too

Repeat my sad tale on my funeral morning
Tell how I transgressed the Commandments of God
And should my just fate at least serve as a warning
Perhaps the next cowpoke won't go where I've trod"

Then all at once the young cowpoke stopped speaking
His thin, wasted body went cold as the clay
And as he instructed, they wrapped him in linen
A party of perverts then took him away

You've just heard the tale of the gay caballero
You know how he lived, and the reason he's dead
Just read the inscription carved on his tombstone
"He was shot from behind, but it wasn't with lead"