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A song about the longing felt when looking at the house you grew up in and realizing you'll never set foot inside again.
STRANGER IN MY HOUSE
(Chuck Hall)
My heart beats at a faster pace
When I set eyes on my home place
Though I last stepped through that front door
Some thirty years ago
I park my car across the street
I would not be thought indiscreet
Nor another nosy tourist
Broken down upon the road
I do not control the force that drives me here today
As I did not control it when it first drove me away
It's hard not to be seen from here, staring at the door
Who's this staring back in disapproval?
There's a stranger in my house
Lord, there's a stranger in my house
I do not recognize the face
They act just like they own the place
There's a stranger in my house
What happened to The Alamo
Out back where all the pine trees grow?
There's nothing left that i can see
But space among the trees
And what of the landscape of the moon?
My God, what did these aliens do?
My friends and I fought monsters here
That no one else could see
The battlefields of the young
Are overgrown, forgotten gone
It was a war I fought and lost
And lost it all alone
For these grown up eyes refuse to see
What used to be so clear to me
And now can only cry
For what it seems I have become
I look around for landmarks
For something that I know
And I'd swear that this is not the same place
I knew long ago
Just because you see it
That doesn't make it so
Just because i do not live here
Doesn't mean that it's not home
There's a stranger in my house
Lord, there's a stranger in my house
I do not recognize the face
They act just like they own the place
There's a stranger in my house
I walk back to my car and unlock the door
I don't belong here anymore
It's a truth that hurts a little more
As every year goes by
I thought myself a stone or tree
That this would always be a home to me
But i find I'm more a cloud than these
And pass unnoticed through the sky
But i've not put away all childish things
I've not forgotten what it's like to sing
"This Old Man Came Rolling Home"
And do so unrestrained
And so I leave this holy place
And sacrifice my parking space
Feeling cleaner for the grace
Of crying unashamed
When I pull in my own driveway
It's good to get back home
There's an old car parked across the street
The driver sits alone
And looks at me judgmentally
A moment, then moves on
I watch her taillights fade into the distance
'Till they're gone
There's a stranger in my house
Lord, there's a stranger in my house
I do not recognize the face
They act just like they own the place
There's a stranger in my house
words and music (c) 2003 Chuck Hall, Hallfolk Music, ASCAP