[Verse 1:] Boys working on empty, Is that the kinda 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 never want once from the cherry tree, ‘Cause my baby's sweet as can be, She give me toothaches just from kissing me. [Chorus:] 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. [Verse 2:] That's 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. [Chorus: 2x] 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. [Verse 3:] My baby 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 put her love down soft and sweet, In the lowland plot I was free, Heaven and hell were words to me. [Chorus: 2x] 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.