1974 Summer Afternoon Drive

We came out west with the windows wide

Cheap beer warm on a freedom ride

Graveyard rumors on the radio

Dust in the throat where the dead things go

Gas pump empty, nerves run thin

Screen door bangs with a slaughterhouse grin

Every mile that we called our own

Leads to a room full of wire and bone

Bloodline crooked, dinner bell cracked

Whole damn family in a butcher’s mask

Wrong turn smiled at the county line

Now we’re on the hook by suppertime

Turn that wheel, don’t look back

Dust in your teeth and hope goes black

Afternoon drive with the windows wide

To the family table where the meat hooks shine

Bone-chair parlor with a freezer breath

Dinner bell ringing like a dare from death

Hammer falls with a factory sound

One bright scream gets swallowed down

Freedom rusts in the slaughter heat

Bare feet slipping on the kitchen meat

Every door is a mouth with nails

Every wall is a livestock rail

Bloodline crooked, dinner bell cracked

Whole damn family in a butcher’s mask

Wrong turn smiled at the county line

Now we’re on the hook by suppertime

Turn that wheel, don’t look back

Dust in your teeth and hope goes black

Afternoon drive with the windows wide

To the family table where the meat hooks shine

HOOKS SWING, CHAIN SAW REVS

DOOR SLAMS, HOPES DEAD

BONE ROOM, BLOOD LIGHT

RUN TILL DAWN, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

Bloodline crooked, dinner bell cracked

Whole damn family in a butcher’s mask

Wrong turn smiled at the county line

Sun coming up with the saw still high

Turn that wheel, don’t look back

Laugh through the blood as daylight cracks

Afternoon drive with the windows wide

Only one gets out alive