You know that old house on the corner?

It's old and rotten and strange

And teenagers go inside

To sneak around and have sex

And little kids go inside on dares

And hear scary noises

But as children we stayed away

And each time we drove past

Daddy told us to be quiet

And switched off the stereo

And we sat watching it loom like a giant

In pin-drop silence

Till it was out of sight

And I wasn't a questioning child

Mostly because when I asked why

Daddy would cry

Then one day when I was thirteen

He showed me his high school yearbook

And the page set aside for the boy

Who had lived in that old house

And that old house was where

He tried to save his mother

From a slurring stepfather

Three gunshots rang out that night

And no one came out alive

And he left behind a best friend

A comrade

A confidant

The only one who knew the truth

And my daddy closed the book and never opened it again

So now that I've got babies of my own

And we pass that old creaking house

I turn off the stereo

And we ride past in silence