LEROY

I'm lookin' for a feller,
Stands about this high high,
Young and yeller as they come,
And dumb,
Dumber 'n a bucket of coal.

Got a face that's thin and weasely,
Got the devil in his eye,
Growed hisself a measly bit of beard upon his chin,
Shit-eatin' grin,
And the mortal sin of murder on his soul.

HAZEL

Murder, you say?

LEROY

For ten days time,
He's been runnin' from his wrong.
But he can't escape the long arm of the law.
'Cause the young boy's crime
Was the wickedest kind around.
See the man he battered down was his own Paw.

HAZEL

His Paw musta done somethin' awful for him to want to clean his clock like that.

LEROY

His Paw done somethin'?!

HAZEL

Shore 'nuff.  It's a great shame when the old and hardened do torment their chirren.

LEROY

Let me tell you, that old man had the patience of a saint to put up with a boy like 'at.

You never seen such a slacker,
Loafin' about all day,
Chawin' on some tobacker, gettin' ill from just a plug,
Always lookin' at his ugly mug in a lookin' glass.

HAZEL

One of them Lothario's, was he?  Always chasing after the girls...

LEROY

Ha—that's a hoot!

If he seen a fine young filly,
He'd up and run away.
His Pappy said, "This lily-livered lad won't get no wife.
All my life I'll be saddled with an ass."
But at last his Pap 
Found a widder the boy could wed,
So he summoned his son and said, "Now here's the deal..."
But the lame-brained sap
Started hollerin' like a fool.
Just as stubborn as any mule, he wouldn't yield.
Well of course such crap was surely bound
To make Paw slap that boy around.
With a blind-side tap of a shovel upon the head,
The boy left his Paw for dead, 
Stretched in a field.

But I promise you...

This here's a long, long way from bein' over.
It's a bad, bad business he begun.
And he ain't yet seen the half.
We'll just see who's last to laugh.
Oh, this one here ain't nowhere near to done.

This here's a far, far cry from bein' over.
It's a long, long way that he has run.
There's a hard man on the case.
There's a bloodhound givin' chase.
Oh, this one here ain't nowhere near to done.

Now for ten long days,
I been follerin' on his trail,
Through the holler and over dale, across the county line.
But the price he pays
Won't be justice in a jail,
Naw, I'm gonna break his goddamn head like he broke mine!

COMPANY

This here's a long, long way from bein' over.

LEROY

It's a dark, dark day to be my son.

COMPANY

There's a hard man on the case.
There's a bloodhound givin' chase.

LEROY

Before hellfire does its worst,
He's gonna answer to me first!

COMPANY

This one here ain't nowhere near to done.
This one here ain't nowhere near to done.


© 2009 by Peter Mills