by Howard Nichols

Created on: February 07, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

Walking up Lambert Road in the Dark

Walking up Lambert Road, in the dark, on the come-latelies' shiny new blacktop

Where they pamper their Benzes and Beemers and Hummers (You believe it? there's Hummers on Lambert!)

Hallowe'en is but three weeks away, and the moon slashes jack o'lantern shapes from the trees

Walked this road for damned near forty years of my life, and it still feels like a horror flick to me

The trees form a tunnel above me, lit houses lay silent, like nobody's there

Down across Readin' Creek a few hounds are wound up, their voices carry in the brilliant night air

Strange movement in the undergrowth, a north breeze filling cold, that rattles and rustles the dead leaves

Always bring me right back to that time, when I had her, and lost her, that time makes me bleed

Why do I go up there, why tear it all open
What good can it do, what can I be hoping
To accomplish by living it all once again
Walking Lambert in the dark, my beginning, and my end

Such an idyllic place that it was to spend boyhood, in daylight at least it was fine

But it always held menace as well, that old road, however peaceful, however rural, however sublime

It held menace that hovered, that lingered, that bristled,
That waited for you with foul breath

Overpowering, overbearing, menace clawing at your back, better run home or surely meet your death

Childish fears, superstition, no credence can you give to such juvenile rantings as these

That's what we said, when we felt it, 'til it came, and we melted, on the day that it took my Marie

Why do I go up there, why tear it all open
What good can it do, what can I be hoping
To accomplish by living it all once again
Walking Lambert in the dark, my beginning, and my end

We were happy, we were planning, we were aiming, we were jamming
We were going to be husband and wife

Since I lost her I wander, not caring, not trying
For anything that resembles a life

I blame the road, and its evil, there's no other way around it
That's the only way this can make sense

No way it could have happened, wasn't random, wasn't destined,
It was evil, no more and no less

This old road thinks it's Hallowe'en every night of the year,
And that Hallowe'en was made just for killing

If you walk it, just be ready, don't go solitaire, don't go lightly
And don't go when the north breeze is filling

Don't go up there, not with loved ones, not with fun in mind, don't go lightly
up that old evil road in the night

Don't risk loved ones, don't risk everything, don't go lightly, don't go up there
Fail to heed me and your soul dies tonight

Why do I go up there, why tear it all open
What good can it do, what can I be hoping
To accomplish by living it all once again
Walking Lambert in the dark, my beginning, and my end

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