The House on the Corner

There’s a sign at the corner

Of your street and mine

It says look out below

No crossing the line

And the folks from the city

All come here to find

The house on the corner

Of your street and mine.

There’s a carnival coming

They’ve set up nearby

They bury the reasons

So we never hear why

There’s a man selling tickets

In the stand with the flowers

There’s a train at the station

It leaves in two hours.

With heaven above

And hell down below,

We’ve got to find some way

To get to the show

And when the curtain is drawn

The children will cheer

And the man with the cane

Says there’s nothing to fear

But in the back of the tent

There’s a jar on a shelf

Inside which resides the

Last trace of yourself.

And the person you were

Is the person you’ll meet

And he’ll purchase a house

At the end of your street.

And when the funfair has gone

And the sun there don’t shine,

He’ll still live on the corner

Of your street and mine.

Oh the people they’ll come

And they’ll try to look in, though

They won’t see a thing through

The boarded up windows

And every so often

The wives will be certain

That they saw bloodshot eyes

Peeking through the front curtain.

And then in the end,

if perchance you can guess

the speak of the crows

sitting on the black fence,

then perhaps it is you

be the one to decipher

the language of ghosts

who have gone there to hide there

and in the dark places

their presence be felt

when they touch those who

on knees before them have knelt.

And twenty years hence

You’ll return to your bed

And find as you grew up

It grew down instead

For it’s true what they say

No one ever goes back

To the home where they grew,

Without feeling the lack.

Oh the leaves in the yard

Form an ominous mound

And come spring all will speak

Of the body they found.

But what none knows is

That of which you are sure,

That the dead man is none other

Than who you were.

Oh, the people will say

That it was his time,

But you’ll know the truth

Of the horrible crime.

And the death of the man

Will be seen by the coroner

As the death of the house

That sits on the corner.

And the hollow that follows

Will come as a sign

To burn down the house on the corner

Of your street and mine.