Yellow Rose of Santa Fe

I was traveling through the country

A golden sunset at my back

And when nighttime overtook me

I found a place to hang my hat

I walked in through the front door

The smell of cigarettes and paint

That's when I first set my eyes on

The yellow rose of Santa Fe

She was dancing with no music

She was floating in the air

And all the while that precious flower

Stayed between her strands of hair

I asked if she'd ever been lonely

She said I've never been at all

So she took me worn and weary

And led me drifting down the hall

She read me like the front page

And she loved me like a storm

Though she fixed me with her cold gaze

I've never seen a smile so warm

In the morning she was nowhere

As the moon is in the day

The only souvenir she left me

The yellow rose of Santa Fe

Now I moved on and I got married

Had three children with my wife

There's not a single day that passes

That I'm not happy with my life

But I'm still walking with my shoes off

I don't think about her every day

But I still carry it with me

The yellow rose of Santa Fe

I was traveling through the country

The golden sunset in a haze

And I can see it in the red sky

The yellow rose of Santa Fe

I can see it in the red sky

The yellow rose of Santa Fe