Josh Ritter - Ground Don't Want Me lyrics

Buried mama standing with the knife
Still in her chest
As per her last instructions at her death
Said you'll never get to heaven, son
So go to hell real slow

Now the ground don't want me, mama
The ground don't want me, no no no

I've stacked the deck
I've held the dead man's hand so many times
Eights and aces wishing for the
Death I hoped was mine
But cards and guns are all the same
Each man must draw his own

Now the ground don't want me, mama
The ground don't want me, no no no

What is the body when the soul is flown?
Has it only been forgotten?
I want to lay down in a field of bone
But an angel guards the garden

I killed men in Blue Eye, Barbaco
New Life and Crystal Wells in every town
The broken hearted rang their steeple bells
For every man, a box for every hole, a rose

Now the ground don't want me, mama
The ground don't want me, no no no

What is the body when the soul is flown?
Has it only been forgotten?
I want to lay down in a field of bone
But an angel guards the garden

Then one morning near Arkana
I chanced to watch some violets rise
Their lunar blues undoing down the
Fastest days and nights
And I thought how sweet to sleep
Beneath the flowers such as those

But the ground don't want me, mama
The ground don't want me, no no no

What is the body when the soul is flown?
Has it only been forgotten?
I want to lay down in a field of bone
But an angel guards the garden

Sometimes I think 'bout mama with the
Knife still in her chest
Sometimes I think 'bout all those lucky
Men I sent to rest
And how it's them who are a-sleepin'
And it's me who is the ghost

Now the ground don't want me, mama
The ground don't want me, no no no

What is the body when the soul is flown?
Has it only been forgotten?
I want to lay down in a field of bone
But an angel guards the garden