Digging My Own Grave

Verse 1: From the break of dawn to sundown
my daddy worked a mine
Well the only time I saw his face was Sunday dinner time
He'd cough and cuss for hours
as he washed the dirt away
My mama always told him,
you're digging your own grave, digging your own grave

Verse 2: He swung that hammer thirty years
while coal dust filled his lungs
He never did breathe easy until his life was done
Well just to feed the family I had to take his place
But I swore I wouldn't spend my life
digging my own grave, digging my own grave

Verse 3: Way back in the mountains, each man had to choose
A life of crime or a workin’ mine was all we ever knew
So I spent the Great Depression down here loading coal
Until the day the timber caved and
trapped me in this hole, trapped me in this hole

Verse 4: There's no way they can hear me
from a thousand feet down
And God knows how quiet it is beneath the ground
But even here I believe He'll hear me when I pray
As I face my final hours
digging my own grave, digging my own grave