Here's one that gave me chills when I first read it:
OLD CHRISTMAS MORNING (Roy Helton)
"Where are you coming from, Lomey Carter,
So early over the snow?
What's them pretties you got in your hand
And where are you aiming to go?"
"Step in, Honey -- Old Christmas morning
I ain't got nothing much,
Maybe a bite of sweetness and cornbread,
A little ham meat and such.
"But come in, Honey! Sally Ann Barton's
Hungering after your face.
Wait till I light my candle up.
Set down! There's your old place."
"Now where you been so early this morning?"
"Graveyard, Sally Ann.
Up by the trace in the salt lick meadows
Where Taulbe killed my man."
"Taulbe ain't to home this morning...
I can't scratch up a light.
Dampness gets on the heads of the matches,
But I'll blow up the embers bright."
"Needn't trouble, I won't be stopping:
Going a long ways still."
"You didn't see nothing, Lomey Carter,
Up on the graveyard hill?"
"What should I see there, Sally Ann Barton?"
"Well, sperits do walk at night."
"There was an elder bush a-blooming
While the moon still gave some light."
"Yes, elder bushes, they bloom, Old Christmas,
And critters kneel down in their straw.
Anything else up in the graveyard?"
"One thing more I saw:
"I saw my man with his head all bleeding
Where Taulbe's shot went through."
"What did he say?" "He stooped and kissed me."
"What did he say to you ?"
"Said, Lord Jesus forgive your Taulbe;
But he told me another word;
He said it soft when he stooped and kissed me,
That were the last I heard."
"Taulbe ain't to home this morning."
"I know that, Sally Ann.
For I killed him, coming down through the meadow,
Where Taulbe killed my man.
"I met him out on the meadow trace
When the moon was fading fast.
And I raised my dead man's rifle gun
And killed him as he come past."
"But I heard two shots."
"Twas his was second:
He shot me 'fore he died.
You'll find us at daybreak, Sally Ann Barton;
I'm laying there dead at his side."
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