On Daniel Road, that red-brick house leans back Turrets up top like it’s watching from the attic track Eight-foot chain fence with a latch that drags And rusted prayer cards tied up in plastic tags Old hearse in the drive with a flat tire sunk And a dented rear door that never quite shut Twenty-five windows lined up, neat and square But half got brown paper and a deadbolt there And the maroon sidewalk out front stains the eye Like old crawl marks sealed under porch-paint dry You slow down, hands set hard on the wheel The porch sits still, but it don’t feel still Then the upstairs windows start to glow And you already know what you don’t want to know That red-brick house keeps your headlights on the road Don’t let it catch your face, don’t let it get too close If you creep by slow, it wants your plate on file Mean little secret sitting there the whole damn mile It knows the sound of tires, it knows a parked-up stare So keep moving, keep moving, don’t let it pull you there They said the folks inside kept odd hours Muttered by the sink, moved like they had powers Neighborhood mouths kept the story fed Witch talk, blood talk, every rumor spread Then the candles lit, one for every head Seen through the glass while the driver’s face went dead Some swore they matched the people in the car Like the house was learning who you are You can laugh it off till the road runs thin Till that front window blinks and you’re staring in And every candle on the second floor Feels like it’s counting your pulse at the door That red-brick house keeps your headlights on the road Don’t let it catch your face, don’t let it get too close If you creep by slow, it wants your plate on file Mean little secret sitting there the whole damn mile It knows the sound of tires, it knows a parked-up stare So keep moving, keep moving, don’t let it pull you there One car, two car, four eyes wide Moms gripping the dash, kids gone stone-quiet inside The fence starts rattling though there’s no wind And the hearse in the drive got a shape in it again Then the second-floor light goes out all at once And the front door cracks open just a couple inches Not a person in sight, just a hallway of black And a little handprint pressed where the glass looked back Maybe it’s junk, maybe it’s trash Maybe it’s kids with a lantern and a mask But the last car that passed never came this far And the one behind it stopped with its lights in the yard That red-brick house keeps your headlights on the road Don’t let it catch your face, don’t let it get too close If you creep by slow, it wants your plate on file Mean little secret sitting there the whole damn mile It knows the sound of tires, it knows a parked-up stare So keep moving, keep moving, don’t let it pull you there Daniel Road goes quiet fast Past the fence, past the hearse, past the glass But if your car rolls by and the windows wake You might bring home more than the road can take
