My mother said never talk to strangers

She said they weren't nothing but danger

But as the years passed

I thought she was only bitter from the past

But you were a stranger

Knocked on my door

I let you in, ignoring my mother's warnings

Brought you tea

Gave you a seat

A piece of pie for you to eat

You stayed all night

Gave you a room

With a window to see the moon

The green lawn

The sunset at dawn

But in the morning

You were gone

So I never talked to strangers

I just saw them as danger

As my mother did before

As my father beat her to the floor

And the next morning he fled

Leaving nothing behind but the pillows beneath our heads

She calls him a stranger

Lost memories just lead to anger

But she said her Bible gave her a Savior

So she sent her anchor down and never left

She smoked out on the porch and wept

Just wishing she had kept

The stranger at her door

For then she would have far less to mourn

For secrets lie beneath floorboards

The resentment resides in every musty morgue

The dead keep the living alive with their sins

And the living do nothing but let the strangers in

But as the stranger knocked on my door

I thought he could be the man I didn't have before

So I lead him in

But now I'm trapped within

the house I left to open for all the ghosts to see

The weakness inside

The perfect stock to gleam

The sin of the dead keeps plaguing me

So I go to my father's grave

And dig him up and ask him to repent

But he just smiles and kisses my cheek

And lies in his grave after The Feast

And I go back to the porch and sit on the swing

Hold my mother's hand and smoke the same cigarettes

The same cigarettes that root from regret.