The Last Man Who Came Through Here

The last man who came through here
Disappeared

He tried to grab me
While I was lying
In my bed

I felt it in my sleep
Somebody's hand
Crawling up my body
Towards my mouth

But when I woke up
To catch him
He'd crept back
To the hammock on the porch
Pretending to be asleep

Thinking I didn't know

Thinking I was stupid

He didn't know how I feel things
For a long time
After they're gone

I got marks on my skin
From two years back
Three, four even

So I know

I know when something's there

He woke up in the hammock
With a knife to his throat
And I said--

'You come here again I'm gonna leave a mark on you like the one you left on me'

And I showed him my stomach
Where his handprint was

And he says--'There's nothing there.'

All panicked
All panicky

'There's nothing there!'

And I keep pointing
Saying--

'It's your hand.  Your fingers.  1-2-3-4-5.  I feel it.  I still feel it.'

And when I woke up
I was back in bed
And there wasn't anybody out in the hammock

But the rope had red in it
Deep in it
Like somebody'd soaked it
In tomato juice

Dark, dark, dark

And there was a dried up puddle
Where his shoes were
Looked like somebody went right through the porch boards
Into the dirt and the junk
We hide away under there

Nobody ever goes under there
Not even Daddy

He used to clean under there every year
Until I got sick that night
And he had to bring me to the doctor's
In the middle of the night
With my stomach cramping so bad
It felt like something was trying to cut its way out of me

The doctor said my appendix had to come out
But I remember seeing him almost a year before
And I remember the places his hand went
And the marks he left
And they weren't doctor places
They weren't the places they should be

And parts of me felt it from the inside
From the inside out
I felt it

So I knew why my stomach was hurting
And when he sent me home
With those pills
I knew what I had to do

And when Daddy went to clean the porch that year
I told him don't

I said 'Don't, Daddy
'Just leave it for me.  I'll do it.  I'll do it for you.'
I'll do it this year

But he waited until I was asleep
And then he went under there
Looking

Looking for something

And when he found it
He came to see me
While I was sleeping
And I felt his hands on my neck

But when I woke up to catch him
He wasn't there
And I didn't see Daddy after that

But I knew he'd been under that porch

Because I could see his footprints
On the ground
And his hand prints on my neck

And I still feel 'em
I feel 'em both

So when that man asked if he could see my Daddy
To ask for a place to sleep
I told him my Daddy was in town
But he could sleep on the porch if he wanted

I should have known
I should have known you can't trust a man
With hands like that

Hands like that doctor
Who left town
With his coat
Still hanging on the hook
In his office

Nobody knows where he went either

Men like to leave their mark
And disappear

Put their hands on a woman
Then take off

But the hands stay there

They can't see 'em 'cause they're men
And men don't see what they do

But I can

I can see them

All over me

All over my body

My Daddy
The Doctor
That Man in the Hammock

He came through here
Saying he was going to come and be gone
Nobody'd even know
He was here

But I knew

I knew he was planning
On leaving a mark

That's why I showed him
I could leave marks too

That's why the dirt in front of the porch
Has all that black soil near it

That's why it's so quiet around here now

Because now I know
How to leave
A mark