Sugar Baby Doll

My sugar baby doll, she came to
With blackened eyes
And all her dresses torn
She’d been handled by two rough hands
Two hands of heavy lead
That scraped and clawed
And cracked her lovely little head

CHORUS:
My sugar baby doll
Was a tiny little thing
She needed comfort and protection
And she needed me to sing
Hush now, baby doll
The dawn bakes cakes of light
And you and I will eat our fill
If we can just survive the night

Sugar shook and trembled
And nary blinked an eye
She held her breath and counted ten
And then began to cry
He was bigger than the clouds
Up in dark and stormy skies
As she wept I took her in my arms
And soothed her broken head
He had pulled her from her cozy home
That hid beneath my bed
He slapped and bit and beat and tore
The rarest of her parts
‘Till they were running red

CHORUS

Each night from that night on
She slept safely in my bed
But each night she woke and cried
‘Till her eyes were crimson red
She dreamed of a cold and stinking hulk
Who was bigger than the clouds
Up in dark and stormy skies
I tried to tend but could never mend
Her tender, rarest parts
And when each night she screamed
It tore my rare and tender heart
I tried to tend but could never mend
Her precious broken head
Each night when she in terror woke
I wished that I was dead

CHORUS

My sugar baby doll
I could not protect
I could not keep her safe
She never slept and never ate
And soon began to waste
And when she died in early spring
I wrapped her up in lace
I buried her in a lush green hill
Upon its eastern face
So she might take comfort in the dawn
And finally reach a state of grace

CHORUS

When I laid my sugar baby doll away
I learned there were no devils
No devils pulling wires
Only men who tend and stoke
Their awful little fires
And when I laid my sugar baby doll away
I learned there are no angels
That set the bell to swing
It’s only wind or man to blame
When the bell begins to ring
There are no martyrs, saints, or sinners
And no god for tiny things