key to ethnopoetic notation       

Have ^you^ heard about
Walney Road in
Chantilly?

Now
now it's —w-i-d-e— and
concrete
and straight.
But  ))) nottoolongago ((( 

it had a —b-e-n-d—
and a —c-u-r-v-e—
and then a —p-l-a-c-e  w-h-e-r-e  y-o-u—
couldn't see
ahead.

And it's in ^that^ place
one —c-o-l-d, r-a-i-n-y— night
that a
young man was hitchhiking
by the side of the road, his thumbs out.

And—
this car
))) cameoutof nowhere (((

slammed right into him

left him

dying in the ditch.

Nobody knows
why
this happened.


Maybe
the car
was trying to miss him
and swerved at the last minute
and hit him anyways.

Maybe
the car
headed right
toward him—
on purpose
to hit him.

Whatever it might be,
now,
some people say
that if you go out there
on Wednesday nights
or
some people say
Thursday nights —a-b-o-u-t—
a half hour before midnight—
you'll see him there
on the side of the road
his thumbs out
hitchhiking.

And if you don't —p-i-c-k  h-i-m  u-p that first time
and you —d-r-i-v-e— a little further down the road
you'll see him a second time—
there
his thumbs out—
hitchhiking.

And if you don't pick him up that second time,
you'll see him a third time.
You'llgo ))) alittlebitfurtherdowntheroad, (((
and he'll be there
with his thumb out
hitchhiking.

And if you don't —p-i-c-k  h-i-m  u-p the third time,
—y-o-u  w-o-n'-t  s-e-e— him ^again^

but
you'll go a little further down that road
and a car'll come out of nowhere
and slam right into ^you^,
and steal your life away.

Walney Road.