When I was young the mom next door
Would have tea at our house
And she said her heart was broke
she told me that life was based
On faith in the Evermore
But me I was always trying to find a way
To get a dime and go outside and play

It was pretty weird my childhood years
Especially with the transference
of those dreaded adult fears
And it is just today as I
feel my pent-up baby tears
That I remember a song
the moms would sing and we’d sing along...

“If you go through that Shady Gate
Have someone near who is for you
Someone who will not mind to wait
As you go slow through shady gate.”

He left my mom when I was ten
She said she didn’t give a damn
That they’d never amount to anything
They woke me up one night
In the middle of an awful fight
I heard him yell ‘What about my needs?’
And her hiss back “Why don’t you
wake up all the neighbours too
But please leave me be,
another kid would finish me”
And in the morning while I ate my cereal he left
I didn’t look so I didn’t see

And she got a better job in the new department store
And me I had to rush right home from school
and feed the kids They didn’t ask about him much
But I asked her once about ‘Shady Gate’
It was late one night
We were hanging out the laundry
She said that Shady Gate
Was when sweet time won’t wait,
It’s like when a choice gets made
Like a deck been laid

And maybe the sun will shine
Or maybe it won’t at all
But whatever is coming for you you get to have it all
And I wanted to ask her then exactly
what he’d meant by ‘needs’
But we had to rush inside
the winter made her
fingers split and bleed

he knocked upon the door before my next birthday
my mom looked real upset and she sent us out to play
And when we came back in
it looked like she’d been crying hard
And him he tried to hug us then
and he said he loved us all.
He said, “Anything you want
all you have to do is say”
And my mind raced to the
brand new pair of jeans
I’d seen at school that day
But you know that night when we slept the
monsters didn’t come
And I dreamt we sang the song out loud
only this time with a drum...

“If you go through that Shady Gate
Have someone near who is for you
Someone who will not mind to wait
As you go slow through Shady Gate”

I like the way you held your head
And how you muttered right out loud...
the things you said...
You were so serious and I didn’t believe at first
You saying there was still some place you had to go
And still some things you had to know

“Well, wash your face” my good friend tells me and
“Clean your house in troubled times”
I must admit It helps an awful lot
To go on loving what you love
You see I’ve even trained my mind
I’m not afraid to look behind
It’s a cool night falling
With the night birds calling
And I dare not wonder where you be
But it’s times like this I wish I had a line to mother love
Or just another word for eternity

Copyright 1978 Nemesis Publishing (BMI)