Buried Bone Blues
Down past the briar
in the tall dry
weed
He dug up a treasure
he did not need
A splintered white relic
turned sour in the clay
He swallowed it whole
at the end of the day
(oh no)
The dog ate the bad bone
out in the yard
Tasted of poison
and bitter and hard
He closed his brown eyes
when the morning broke gray
From that bad old bone he just slipped away
We carried him gentle
when the fever was done
Under the pine
where he'd sleep in the sun
Turned the cool dirt
with an old iron spade
Marked where the loyalest traveler was laid (mm-mm)
The dog ate the bad bone out in the yard
Tasted of poison
and bitter and hard
He closed his brown eyes
when the morning broke gray
From that bad old bone
he just slipped away
He was buried in the back yard
Beneath the crooked pine
The ground is quiet now
The end.