Dead River
There’s a story told
Of long ago
When ol’Bill Haley snapped
He ran to debt
And couldn’t get
A job and so felt trapped.
At the end of his rope
He gave up hope
And went crazy, so they say.
He came home one night
His eyes wild and bright
With a danger held at bay.
Blackness came
And he began
To turn a hateful savage.
He looked down
To see the ground
Where he did most damage.
A bloody knife
That slain his wife
Laid nestled in his hand.
He couldn’t cry
He didn’t try
The wind howled cross the land.
A second look
He then took
And finally saw the gloom.
Because, beside her
Lay his daughter
And his son there in the room.
They caught him then,
The sheriff did
and slammed the iron den.
There’d be no sorrow
On the morrow
He’d hang until the end.
T’was not to be
For Bill Haley.
He escaped, you see.
But there he stopped
And gave a shiver
On the bank of ol’Dead River.
He had to cross
Or he’d be lost
So, he stepped down in her.
But…
The river claimed him on that night
No one knows just how
But she rose high and caused a fright
And took the town down with her.
She took revenge and took them all
With one fell swoop and then
She made ol’Bill step out of hell
To haunt her banks forever.
Be careful when you walk the woods
Down near ol’Dead River.
You’ll probly see, ol’ Bill Haley
With bloodied knife and driller.
mjr (copyright 2012)
