This I Call My Home

With boards and nails we built these walls For a place to call our own I made these rooms, I made these halls And so I call it home But when we leave, it won’t remember us It won’t realize the security it tendered us As the world outside battered and rendered Our hearts, minds, and souls all dismembered It will never commit to memory The imprints of either you or me These walls I battered with my fists Left confused and rattled by your kiss The windows broke under my hand All glossy glass reflections and This I call my home I scuffed this hand-laid parquet Leaving marks all along the way As my screams rang on the plaster Rich with oaths and furious disaster But the walls, they stood strong And when silence broke long The walls absorbed the words I articulated And let me lie, mind numb and dissipated As much as these unspeaking walls and floors mean to me As soon as I pack my things, they will not remember me particularly All I leave is a scar on the doorframe From when you left but never came And the shards from a broken windowpane Embedded in the timber lain Across the foundations I set alone And so I’ll quietly leave this place I call home