The Dark knows my name

I came home after midnight but the door was already open and the hallway light was swinging like something had just left I called out once not loud just enough to prove I was still alive but the house answered first There are shadows in the kitchen There are whispers in the walls There are names beneath the floorboards I don't recognize at all And the mirror in the hallway Keeps on looking past my face Like it knows I am a stranger In a long forgotten place Oh, the dark knows my name It has spoken it before Through the rain on the window Through the cracks in the door Oh, the dark knows my name And it sings it back to me Like a hymn for the lonely Like a prayer with no belief I used to think ghosts were dead people but I was wrong Some ghosts are just moments that refused to leave the room A chair left warm A song half sung A goodbye that never found a mouth There is dust upon the table There is wine inside the glass There are footsteps on the ceiling From a boy I used to pass He was younger He was hopeful He had fire in his chest Now he walks around above me While I try to get some rest Oh, the dark knows my name It has spoken it before Through the rain on the window Through the cracks in the door Oh, the dark knows my name And it sings it back to me Like a hymn for the lonely Like a prayer with no belief I buried my dreams in the garden But the flowers grew black I gave my heart to the silence And it never gave it back I lit one candle for mercy I lit one candle for shame Then the wind came laughing softly And it called me by my name So I sat down in the dark like an old friend had arrived and for the first time in years I did not ask it to leave Oh, the dark knows my name It has carried me for years Through the rooms I never entered Through the songs nobody hears Oh, the dark knows my name And I know its voice by now It was never here to kill me It was here to show me how How to stand inside the silence How to breathe beneath the rain How to lose what never loved me How to not come back the same