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? 

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 [bad word]  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? 

 [bad word] from devils. 
 [bad word] from angels. 
 [bad word] 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?