Lament for Lester Cousins

music and lyrics by Corb Lund


Lester Cousins left his brothers on a work truck filled with others

'cause 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, 'cause 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