Lucy, loved one don’t you know I love you down to the bone? I’m gonna take you in my poison arms and never gonna let you go. Can you hear me in my windowless room, calling out through the midnight to you? Like a mad man, more like a wolf, howling out at his mistress the moon. If I ever get out of here, I’m going to find you, that much I know. ‘Cos honey I don’t think you know just what you mean To the creeps like me. I’d bloody my hands for you I’d Vietnam for you, make the six o’clock news just prove it’s the truth. I met you in a roadside bar, on the rain shadow side of Washington State. You were leaning in neon light of the entry way, asking all those long haulers if they needed a date. You rode with me for sixteen days, ‘til you caught the wrong side of my blinding rage. Where it comes from, I couldn’t say, but I sure don’t blame you for running away If I ever catch up to you, I’ll make it up to you, that much I know. ‘Cos honey I don’t think you know just what you mean To the creeps like me. I’d bloody my hands for you, I’d Son of Sam for you, Make the six o’clock news just prove it’s the truth. Just outside the entrance to the Motorway Inn, There’s a dead Coyote on the shoulder of the road; fur rippling in the wind. Beautiful in the morning light, legs reaching towards the other side, Like he might make it out of this alive, if he could just reach his beau at the tree line. Honey that’s how I feel about you and I: Just a couple of creatures of the night trying to survive, Scavenging whatever we can, ‘fore we’re caught in the light. I’d Vietnam for you, I’d Son of Sam for you. Make the Six o’clock news just to prove it’s the truth

There is a house so big and grand rising up through the sycamore trees She rests her bones against the banks, down by old mill Creek. My father Spent his whole life in debt, raising up his family; Four kids and a wife in a big old house, down on Merriam Street. In the summer as a child, the backyard stretched for miles to the edge of the known universe. An infinite Eden, golden and green, for all of our adventures. Funny how as you get older the world around you starts to shrink. The world never seemed ever quite as big as it did down on Merriam Street. When I was a young man, I thought I had to run from the life closing in on me Something ‘bout those little home towns, can make feel so hard to breathe. Thought I escaped, but I just lost my way; ten years alone in the pines. Now I can hear something calling back home, calling me deep through the night. Time somehow keeps rolling by like the water down old mill creek. So many things have slipped through my hands ‘fore I knew what they were to me. One day I’ll find passage back to that town with the sycamore trees And from our hearth at my family’s side, never again will I leave. But I work my fingers down to the bone, from dusk until the dawn. Sometimes I fear I’ll work and work ‘til all my good days are gone. And I wonder what my father would think of the life that I’ve come to lead, ‘cos I’m still searching through the dark for that house on Merriam Street.

Well William Francis went out one night, after kissing his wife and newborn goodbye. He got into a Buick idling in the drive and that was the last time they saw him alive. A witness said he came into the bar that night, just as they were turning ‘round the open sign, With two strange men, one on either side; looking like big city muscle, twice his size. If he came in, he never came back out and those two other fellas must’ve gone and skipped town. His wife Tracy went looking high and low, but William Francis was as good as a ghost; Bound for the Valley of the greater Unknown. The Detectives asked if there was anything strange, ‘bout the way William was acting that day. Not that she remembered or cared to describe, maybe just look he got from time to time. With no new leads the search burned out. Sometimes a body just don’t want to be found. Rumors swirled all over town, but they couldn’t prove nothing ‘yond a shadow of a doubt. She heard them whisper when she walked by; saw them shaking their heads in the corner of her eye. She wouldn’t let it shake her and she never lost hope one day William would come waltzing back home. Back from the valley of the greater unknown. Some folks say, he had another family, way out west, in Los Angeles Others say, the Genovese, had him buried alive for secrets he couldn’t keep. But she used to get a call in the middle of the night with nothing but static on the other end of the line. And she used to sit and listen ‘till she heard the dial tone, waiting on a message From the valley of the greater unknown. She did her best to raise his boy up right on ten fifty an hour and some overtime. Times were tough but they always scraped by, with a little help from his parents when money got tight. She tried to move on over the next few years, you can’t live in the past when you’re living in arears. She remarried a sympathetic man and I try to treat her better than William ever had. But when we walk her boy up to the end of the drive, where we wait together for his bus to arrive, It knocks the wind out of her when he waves goodbye. When I ask her, “honey, what’s making you cry?” She just says, “something in that look he gets from time to time.”

In the middle of the night, with a horn full of fire, searching fence line for the break in the wire Where the wolves are getting or the lambs keep getting out. There’s a murderous wind letting loose a naked howl and I fall into darkness as the horn hits the ground On the wrong side of the wire, casted afoul. It makes me feel like a child no one knows they should be out looking for. All alone in the eleventh hour, save the presence of the lord. I come to a clearing when the fog disappears, after wandering the woods for what felt like many years There stands the shadow of a man I’m sure I once knew. But he’s older now with a lantern in hand and he looks more and more like my troubled old man Pointing me off towards the path in the pale light of the moon. I want to ask if he is who he seems, but he isn’t anymore. May he find his way out of the darkness to the presence of the lord. The path leads to a chapel fallen in disrepair, abandoned by some child of God in despair Cobwebs climb the walls and the ceiling’s caving in. With the light of the moon and the stars punching through broken stain glass windows and the holes in the roof it feels like she’s trying to whisper something to you: Have you heard any news, heard rumor of his returning once more? I’ve been waiting, so patiently waiting for the presence of the lord.

I had a sister and we lived together, in a house on a cul de sac Dad had a steady job and so did mom, down at the Boeing plant. I still remember the sound of their laughter from downstairs when they would come home Every Friday night they’d hit every dive, down on Casino Road. Then Dad got hurt, laid off at work, times they got tougher real fast I took a full-time job to help out my mom and dad while he was out on his back. While they tried to fix him, they wrote a prescription for something nobody should have. First he took the pills, then the pills took him. Damn Doc, you killed my old man. My mother tried to keep it together, but there’s only so much you can stand. Seems like every night she would give into drink and the arms of some other man, On Casino Road My little sister, She had a enough, left as soon as she could get out, Mom just shrugged and said, “let her run,” and faded back into the walls of the house. I did my best to keep my eye on my sister, make sure things didn’t get outta hand But she fell in love with a two bit thug selling the same shit that killed my old man. Wasn’t long before things went south and he tried to put her under the ground. I found her with her jaw wired shut and her face cut up, wandering in a hospital gown Down on Casino Road. He got out after three years inside (good behavior, he saw the light). I heard he got clean, started a ministry, out there on highway 99. Mom passed away back in 2008 and left me what was left of the house, And some bills to pay and not much to say as they lowered her silently down. I tried to find her after the funeral, figured she had a right to know. I asked around but the trail went cold like night opened up and swallowed her whole Somewhere on Casino Road. Time passes by. I work the ARCO at night. Down there on Bedlam Drive. I’ve seen so many things you wouldn’t believe, its wonder anyone’s still alive. Five in the morning, counting the tills I see someone beeline for the door I get ahold of her sleeve as she was trying to leave, mad dog spills out all over the floor. Soaked to the bone with nowhere to go like something dredged up from the sloughs it’s hard to hold on to something so far gone when they’ve got absolutely nothing to lose On Casino Road.

Sister got sick in the third grade, spent every weekend at St. Luke’s. My father holding her hair back, throwing up in the bathroom. One day I asked him what happened, he said she’s not coming home. “Pray to God that there’s a heaven, son. Pray that she’s not alone.” My best friend went into the army, 82nd infantry corp. He went to fight in some desert, came back someone I don’t know. We all tried to understand him, he says he’s haunted by ghosts. “Pray to God there’s still a heaven, man. Pray I still get to go.” I’m a deputy sheriff out of Graingeville, killer in the back of my car. He put two girls down in Twin Falls, another one in my backyard. I asked what drove him to do it, he says there’s nothing to tell. “Some people get sent to heaven, some people get sent to hell.” Come home it’s three in the morning, make sure the kids are okay. I got a son and a daughter now, another one that’s due in May. I watch my wife as she’s sleeping, watch every breath that she takes. Thank God for my little piece of heaven. Pray he doesn’t take it away.

there must be something below the surface too far below to understand a reservoir of dark impulses in the heart of many a man. must have served some kind of purpose when the world was wicked and strange did it help stave off the madness that comes from living in a vile age must be something deep inside of me something deep in my DNA that despite my best intentions makes me push your love away Does it hide somewhere in the family tree? how many others have felt the shame? heading off in a new direction ending up in the same bad way must be something deep inside of me something deep in my DNA that despite my best intentions makes me push your love away. Honey, i know time is running low, can't you see it on my face? nothing robs you like tomorrow of all you got to lose today but i can't think anymore about it ash tray is full, day's about to break in the end i just gotta keep on trying not to push your love away.

We went into the city, we had us a time. We walked hand in hand, under neon city lights. Fell asleep entangled, your head resting on my chest. I lay awake and wonder, when he’s coming to collect: We’re sitting at the dinner table, all our family and friends, A dream of joy and laughter, the kind you wish would never end, When I look into all their eyes and think on the time we’ve spent That’s when I hear the knock of the uninvited guest. The whole room goes silent, stranger at the door. He’s dressed in black for violence, someone I’ve never seen before. He points his finger at each one of us, “please come forward single file.” “I’ll get to every one of you, it’s just going to take a while.” Wake up and drink a glass of water, look out the window into the night. I get a feeling something’s out there, just beyond the edge of the tree line. Lock the front and then the backdoor, climb back into bed. Don’t know who I think I’m fooling, one day I know it’s getting in. But does it happen all a sudden? Phone call in the night? Do you get to see it coming? Do you get to say goodbye? Well, when I’m thinking on it, I don’t know which would be worse, I just hope that when comes, he doesn’t take you from us first.

You had your brother’s jean jacket on, you were hanging tough on the hood of a car Outside the Karcherville mall, as summer turned into fall You were a senior class of ’92, I graduated two years ahead of you Stayed in this town to long, working these shit shovel jobs When you called me over to kiss the ring, don’t remember what we said but it felt like lightning Just like that we’re in love, just like that Satan clapped his hands we’re in love Blue ruin You had a boyfriend the quarterback, he was a silverback in a letterman’s jacket He made all kinds of plans, but he never stood a chance, did he babe? Your dad he found out and he didn’t approve he said, "that boys nothing but poison for you" That’s the God’s honest truth, poison for me, poison for you So we stole credit cards and two hundred in cash from the leather walled on your parent’s nightstand We made a break for Las Vegas, or as far as a full tank would take us Towards Blue Ruin Pumping gas at some desert filling station, I saw you running out, hand full of small denominations You’re waving my gun in the air, like some deranged millionairess. Off duty cop in the next over stall saw the whole thing, tried to put a stop to it all Engine revved he yells stop; windshield shattered from the shots. Doing ninety miles down deserted highways, you’re bleeding hard but say you’ll be okay. “Come on baby tell me a story, what’s it like where we’re going, In Blue ruin?”