It was long ago when the death of winter stole our name/
When the money that we made paid to keep the family sane/
These hours of injustice ran among us like taxes and rats/
Looking to live in our pockets, in homes and habitats/
Streets paved with gold were melted and sold/
Beatings from pale police left us tired and old/
These were drastic measures they called for drastic action/
My pa used his fists and wits, told me about fashion/
Saying, I'm a uniform a statement born from torn cloth/
Brown from the dust and rough from the way we talked/
I came from the salt of the earth with ghosts in the dirt/
Names haunted from birth and left weak hands hurt/
As a child, wild blood ran through my veins/ 
Staring at the dark blue sky or the gambling remains/
Of the unlucky victims, nowhere to go or stay/ 
They would whisper when it rained that they needed to be saved

In the quiet of the night, in the quiet of the night/ 
Somebody keeps saying, somebody keeps saying/
Devil said to send them all to [bad word] and don't ask/
Time for me to make it right/
In the quiet of the night, in the quiet of the night/ 
Somebody keeps saying, somebody keeps saying/
Devil said to send them all to [bad word] and don't ever ask/
Time for me to make it right

I was too poor for rich schools, too smart for [bad word] 
The shovels my parents carried were my first clue/
That when the sunset vanished and left our family in the dark/
Oil lamps lit up the paths through the fields and the swamp/
Down the river my mother walked until the headstones rose/
Following the whispers until the voices scattered and closed/
Watching from a distance they would sing those songs and dig/
Finishing stories that I always heard as a kid/
Never studied that Bible, but I knew the word apostle/
My grandpa used to sing about the life and what it cost you/
He would say, it's no [bad word]  cause they know where you are/
Need to send them back to home and do the good work of God,
He would insert an ughhh at end of each refrain/
My parents knew my calling telling me when it came/
Without a word, when all was quiet, when the dirt fell on the grave/
They collapsed while they sang, calling out my name

In the quiet of the night, in the quiet of the night/ 
Somebody keeps saying, somebody keeps saying/
Devil said to send them all to [bad word] and don't ask/
Time for me to make it right/ 
In the quiet of the night, in the quiet of the night/ 
Somebody keeps saying, somebody keeps saying/
Devil said to send them all to [bad word] and don't ever ask/
Time for me to make it right

I was gone [bad word] from the demons that haunt/
They would follow my hollow steps as long as they wanted/
The phantoms found me waiting on back roads empty/
Bag packed, hurt to abandon everything about me/
I'll take the first ride I find/ 
There's no moon tonight, walking blind, on the move to my/
Sanctuary where the ghosts, they don't know where to look/
I'm a grave diggers son but I never was a crook no no no/
Can't see the future but I know I'll always have work/
Against the stitching of the past, always sewing outskirts/
 [bad word]  town gone, fight them back where I belong/
All over again I'm moving, shaking death's hand, strong/
Like a vision from the moon shining in my silver flask/
Poison points me to a path that I'm walking on at last/
When my cradle broke the voices spoke like a choir of saints/
Let them in, let them talk, let them lead me to my fate

In the quiet of the night, in the quiet of the night/ 
Somebody keeps saying, somebody keeps saying/
Devil said to send them all to [bad word] and don't ask/
Time for me to make it right/ 
In the quiet of the night, in the quiet of the night/ 
Somebody keeps saying, somebody keeps saying/
Devil said to send them all to [bad word] and don't ever ask/
Time for me to make it right