[Verse 1]
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

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

[Verse 2]
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

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

[Chorus]
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
[Verse 3]
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

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

[Chorus]
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

[Verse 4]
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

[Refrain]
But the ground don't want me, mama
The ground don't want me, no no no
[Chorus]
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

[Bridge]
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

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

[Chorus]
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