Crossing Muddy Waters

My baby's gone and I don't know why She let out this morning Like a rusty shot in a hollow sky Left me without warning Sooner than the dogs could bark And faster than the sun rose Down to the banks in an old mule car She took a flatboat across the shallow Left me in my tears to drown She left a baby daughter Now the water's wide and deep and brown She's crossing muddy waters Tobacco standing in the fields Be rotten come November And a bitter heart will not reveal A spring that love remembers When that sweet brown girl of mine Her black eyes are ravens We broke the bread and drank the wine From a jug that she'd been saving Left me in my tears to drown She left a baby daughter Now the water's wide and deep and brown She's crossing muddy waters Baby's crying and the daylight's gone That big oak tree is groaning In rush of wind and river of song I can hear my sweetheart moaning Crying for her baby child Or crying for her husband Crying for that river's wild To take her from her loved ones Left me in my tears to drown She left a baby daughter Now the water's wide and deep and brown She's crossing muddy waters Left me in my tears to drown She left a baby daughter Now the water's wide and deep and brown She's crossing muddy waters