Bambara – Machete lyrics

[Verse 1]
There’s a clearing behind her mother’s house
On the other side of Silver Creek
We’d drink cheap, cherry vodka there late at night
Her dog, Lobo, at our feet
Crystal was younger than me, but much tougher
With a dark smile on her lips
She looked so pretty laughing in my puckered face
When I pulled up her skirt a bit

[Break]
Lobo took off
She said, “You catch that hound I’m yours”

So I ran
Through the trees
Chasing sounds
Deep into the darkness
Then I fled

[Verse 2]
Then I fled and took Crystal to her room
Turned off all the lights
I closed the curtains to the sickle moon
Said, “There’s a strange man outside
He was out there swatting lighting bugs
On his greasy face and body
I could just make out two big pale eyes staring
Through streaks of glowing green
His pig-face grinning mean”

[Bridge]
Her smile
Fell away
And she said
“Thought I was going crazy
I’ve seen him too
And I can’t take it anymore
I can’t take it
Every night I see him in the window
Those big pale eyes”

[Verse 3]
I stole a machete
Hacked up small animals for practice
Even when I found Lobo tied in a knot
No one believed us
Weeks later I was patrolling the woods
Red lights flashing through the branches
I dropped the machete
Ran to her house
And saw two cop cars and an ambulance
Lighting bugs glowing in the breeze
And I fell to my knees

[Verse 4]
It’s been years now
I moved to the city
To get lost in the trash
Like one of many fruit flies
And I found my wife, Claire
So full of life, so wild
With a smile beyond compare
And our first child is
Kicking strong inside her
But sometimes I swear
I look at her face and I see Crystal hiding in there
The way her lips pout
When she’s brushing her hair
I see her everywhere
I tried my best to lose her
How I got lost in bars spilling into streets
Too drunk to dream
Can’t dream or I’ll see him choking Crystal with her sheets
And grinning mean

[Verse 5]
Now, it seems
Like violence is a mist
Slowly creeping from the past
And I can’t help but feel
He’s coming back for me
Just last week
An old machete was found
Lodged in some young cop’s gut
Right on our street
Where I could hear him suffering
And I recalled a possum
Still trying to run
Though I’d cut its head clean off
Same as me, I thought
Fleeing home when I knew damn well he’d never stop
Because I saw those eyes
And tonight
As I patrolled the halls
Checking all the windows, I saw
The green glow of a lightning bug
Kissed Claire’s sleeping lips and grabbed my gun
Not gonna run