Machete Songtext
von Bambara

There′s a clearing behind her mother's house
The other side of Silver Creek
We′d drink cheap cherry vodka there late at night
Her dog, Lobo, at our feet
Yeah, Christa was younger than me, but much tougher
With a dark smile on her lips
She looked so pretty laughing in my puckered face
When I pulled up her skirt a bit
And Lobo took off, she said, "You catch that hound, I'm yours"

So I ran
Through the trees
Chasing sounds
Deep into the darkness


Then I fled, took Christa to her room
Turned off all the lights
I closed the curtains to a sickle moon
Said, "There's a strange man outside"
He was out there swatting lightning bugs
On his greasy face and body
I could just make out two big pale eyes
Staring through streaks of glowing green
His pig face grinning mean

Her smile
Fell away
And she said
That I was going crazy
And I′ve seen him too
And I can′t take it anymore
I can't take it
Every night
I see him in the window
With those big pale eyes


I stole a machete
Hacked up small animals for practice
Even when I found Lobo tied in a knot
No one believed us
Weeks later, I was patrolling the woods
Red lights flashing through the branches
I dropped the machete, ran to a house
And saw two cop cars and an ambulance
Lightning bugs glowing in the breeze
And I fell to my knees

It′s been years now
And I've moved to the city
To get lost in the trash
Like one of many fruit flies
And I found my wife, Claire
So full of life, so wild, with a smile beyond compare
And our first child is kicking strong inside her

And sometimes, I swear
I look at her face and I see Christa hiding in there
The way he looks at her when she′s brushing her hair
I see her everywhere
Yeah, I've tried my best to lose her
How I got lost in bars
Spilling in the streets, too drunk to dream
Can′t dream or see him choke Christa in the sheets
And grinning mean
Now it seems
That violence is amiss
Slowly creeping in from the past
And I can't help but feel he's coming back for me
Yeah, just last week
An old machete was found lodged in some young cop′s gut
Right on our street
I could hear him suffering
And I recall
A possum still trying to run
Though I cut his head clean off
Saying it′s me you thought played home
When I knew damn well he'd never stop

Cause I saw those eyes
And tonight as I patrolled the hall
Checking all the windows, I saw
The green glow of a lightning bug
Kissed Claire′s sleeping lips and grabbed my gun
Yeah, I'm gonna run