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 that you hear someone 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 travelled
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