The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll

Just get in your car

And strap yourself in tight

Fix your eyes on a distant point

And turn on the headlights

Push your foot to the floor

And lock both your doors

So I can't chase you anymore

My friend

And please don't slow down

Until you hear that old cold ocean

Or until you think you hear somebody drowning

Or some other body suffocating

Then take a deep breath slowly

Say a Hail Mother Mary

That you won't see me ever again

My friend

You're going to split open the mountains

Because you're on that thin ribbon of highway

And all the men from the prisons

Will be shoving signs in the shoulder blades

Your lane is coming to an end

And you don't love me anymore

My friend

There's a toll-taker at the end of the turnpike

Holding up a million cars

He's everything you pictured as you traveled through the dark

Sitting on the bank of a million stars

And if he waves you through and tells you to

Beware of fallen rock and landslides

You'll see that murder in his eyes

As he drops your change into the drawer

And if you wonder why there's murder in his eyes

It's because you don't need him anymore