Jen Cass: Music
No Reply
She waits impatiently for him to leave the house
Under the basement stairs as quiet as a mouse
He drinks his coffee and he reads the daily news
Another robbery, another wife abused
And somewhere deep inside his heart He feels her there
Feels her everywhere
His beautiful young bride and sadness
Forces him to play a crazy game
Just once he calls her name
There’s no reply
He folds the paper, puts the cup down in the sink
Avoids her picture so he will not have to think
Of summer evenings by the lake under the stars
The way he loved her and the day he went too far
It haunts him
Came home early, heard a stranger’s voice
He didn’t make a choice
He acted out of rage and madness
At her funeral he sang every hymn
No one suspected him
Nobody would
And he remembers
How her eyes danced in the light
The day she promised
Before God she’d be his wife
Forsaking all others
She’d cling to him for life
That’s what she promised him
Forgot it all
The 911 call made the operator cringe
Send someone quickly
Dear God, someone’s broken in
He killed my wife, I found her laying on the floor
Ten minutes earlier I could have saved her
Lord, I failed her
Heard her screaming and I found my gun
Saw the intruder run
I shot him as he fled the bedroom
“We’ve got two cars on the way”, she said.
“Is the intruder dead?”
“I think he is.”
But he remembers how their eyes they danced with fright
The way they promised they would break it off that night
The way they stood before him begging for their lives
The way she reached for him before the fall
He puts the car in gear, starts backing down the drive
He sees the curtains move and swears that she’s alive
The house is burning an inferno climbing higher
He rushes back to save the ghost that lit the fire
And finds her dancing safely through the burning rooms
And though the danger looms
He follows her through smoke-filled hallways
‘Til he falls among the crackling flames
Just once she calls his name
There’s no reply