Down the crooked road a ways a child's shadow hiding in the briar tending   to a twisted heart that's bent and broken,   wounded and abandoned left amongst the rotted root to rot moon, crimson   moon rose marie's walking down the crooked road a ways all aglow,   her fair white skin portrait of beauty,   angel to many hears the hush crying from the briar reaches in her hand   to see what's the matter,   and is dragged through the darkness    beneath the lonely cypress the town's beloved daughter    carried to her death in the turbid waters    and set afloat downstream whole town erupts, bursts into flame parties   go a-searching down the crooked road a ways find old rufus there drunk   and asleep fishing by the water must have killed our beloved daughter   can't hold back these waves of anger tie a rope around his neck see if   he still hollers another innocent soul hangs over the briar