Lament for Lester Cousins

Lester Cousins left his brothers on a work truck filled with others
Cuz his father'd left his mother years ago
And Lester's mother took in lovers to feed and clothe his younger brothers
So at thirteen years our Lester chose to go

Men introduced him to hard labour, moving earth and stacking hay
Were all the options that were open to the boy
And the same men showed our Lester Lady Luck's appeal and blessed her
With a trusting young disciple to enjoy

With the gamblin' came the drinkin' and the cocaine and the sinkin'
That accompanies a man who's falling down
And pretty soon the fightin' and the whoring every night
And pills and losing left his spirit on the ground

Well there comes a time when even hardened men need to believe in
Something more and look within and be afraid
When a particularly rough night took his friend in one more knife fight
For the first time in his hard life Lester prayed

Lester now, Lester now, keep it together, we all want to see you succeed
Lester now, Lester now, hold it together, cuz your goodness is what the world needs
Lester now, Lester now, keep it together and don't lose that spirit of yours
And for the sake of us all, Lester, try not to fall with the weight of the world at your door
And for the sake of us all, Lester, try not to fall with the fate of the world on the floor
And for the sake of us all, Lester, try not to fall with the hate of the world as your whore

Well God led Lester to a lady who was finally worth the wait
He bought a ring and changed his ways and settled down
And he farmed his forty acres, raised a daughter, loved his Maker
Loved his wife and earned respect all through the town

Hard at work and clean and sober fifteen years come this October
All the vices of his past had disappeared
Very little did he know then that the young, out of control men
That his mother'd learned to dread would reappear

Well his life and home were shattered and his wife and daughter battered
When the kind he knew so well came back around
An incontainable aggression induced Lester to regress and
Coldly murder those who'd raped the love he'd found

It didn't take them long to find him or convict him or confine him
To a cell block full of wounded prisoner doom
Because despite his mother's will, her Lester Cousins was a killer now
Who'd never live to leave the jailer's tomb