Lyric

The door gave under my hand

Before I had prepared my face

A coat rack leaned beside the stairs

With every hook in use but mine

Your slippers crossed the kitchen tile

In patterns I had never learned

The house received me without effort

Like a room receiving rain

No lock had turned against me

No voice had asked me why

Still, I knew it at the threshold

Held Open Without Me

I could step inside

I could set my bag down

I could name the crack

Running through the ceiling

Nothing here refused me

That was the cruelest part

A place can keep the doorway

And lose the reason you walked in

The table had a working order

Salt near your chair, bills by the bread

My old cup sat too high to reach

Behind the plates for guests

You asked about the city

I asked about the rain

We spoke like careful relatives

Protecting something plain

No one made a wound of it

No one chose a side

The years had done their quiet work

And left the latch alive

I could take my shoes off

I could find the stairs

I could hear the pipes

Knock once behind the wall

Nothing here had vanished

Nothing here was mine

A place can keep your outline

And fill the rest with time

I wanted some refusal

Something clean enough to blame

A changed lock, a colder answer

A room that said my name

But the door kept giving softly

The hall kept standing still

You left a towel beside the bed

And called it what you will

So I stayed inside the mercy

Of being let back in

Not wanted like before

Not lost enough to end

I could sleep beneath this roof

I could wake and fold the sheets

I could thank you for the breakfast

And mean it when I spoke

But the house had learned a language

I arrived too late to read

A place can stay unlocked

And not be waiting

I closed the door behind me

Careful with the frame

Nothing followed after

Nothing asked me to remain