Boys, working on empty
Is that the kind of way to face the burning heat?
I just think about my baby,
I'm so full of love I could barely eat
There's nothing sweeter than my baby
I'd never want once from the cherry tree
'Cause my baby's sweet as can be
She'd give me toothaches just from kissing me
When my time comes around,
Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth,
No grave can hold my body down,
I'll crawl home to her
Boys, when my baby found me,
I was three days on a drunken sin
I woke with her walls around me,
Nothing in her room but an empty crib
And I was burning up a fever,
I didn't care much how long I lived
But I swear I thought I dreamed her
She never asked me once about the wrong I did
When my time comes around,
Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth,
No grave can hold my body down,
I'll crawl home to her
My babe would never fret none
About what my hands and my body done,
If the Lord don't forgive me,
I'd still have my baby and my babe would have me
When I was kissing on my baby
And she'd put her love down soft and sweet
In the low lamp light I was free
Heaven and Hell were words to me
When my time comes around,
Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth,
No grave can hold my body down,
I'll crawl home to her