Hanging In Texas (song lyrics)

© 2008 Colin Whyles

And so we bade our final silent nights
And went our separate unholy ways
I drank the gas that burned my lungs
And dropped the curtain early on the day
To never rise again

They told me of the mother's love
That I had never feasted on
I couldn't tell them of the pain
That came to comfort me each day again
Such a perfect love

I so regret the wasted lives
And broken bodies, bloodied knives
Where strangers met by chance on days
When two walked in and one away
Always one would stay

We spoke through letters through the years
And only met to say farewell
You touched me with your promises
I held them with the hand that lies
Forever icy still

Inspired by the telling by Pamela Thomas on BBC Radio 4 on 24^th December 2000 of the life and execution in Huntsville, Texas of a murderer who, as his last words, sang 'Silent Night' to his mother, who had ill-treated and sexually abused him as a child. Pamela Thomas wrote to him for eight years before his execution.