Long about an hour before sunrise
She drags his body down to the edge of the swollen river
Wrapped in a red velvet curtain
Stolen from the movie theater where she works
Quiet as a whisper, under the stanchions of a washed-out bridge she cuts him loose...
And watches as the flood waters spin him around once, then carry him away
Then she removes the golden ring upon her finger...and she throws it in
And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you... Baby why don't you cry?
And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you... Baby why don't you cry?

Three days later in a bar in southern Mississippi she meets a man by the name of Charles Lee
She introduces herself to him as "Lee Charles" "What a coincidence." he says...
And one week later they are married
He wakes up one night six months down the line to find her staring at him in the oddest way
When he says, "Honey, what's wrong?" she says, "Oh nothing dear...except that tears are
A stupid trick of God."
And by the time they find his body six weeks later... Well hell, she's a thousand miles away
And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you... Baby why don't you cry?
And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you... Baby why don't you cry?

She runs from devils. She runs from angels
She runs from the ghost of her father and five different uncles
Blinded by their memory, seared by their pain, she'd like to kill 'em all...then kill 'em all again
She don't think much about what she's done or the funny feelings that she feels
No, she don't
To her it's just a condition she picked up as a child... a little thing she calls
"the wound that never heals", she calls it, "the wound that never heals"
And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you...
Baby why don't you cry?