The night the house went quiet | The Long Way Home | Track 11-14 | 1970

There’s a picture frame still crooked on the wall Where your coat once hung, there’s nothing there at all The kettle never sang tonight Even the clocks forgot the time And every floorboard held its breath with me There’s a half-read book still waiting by the bed A hollow where your pillow used to rest your head The radio stayed dark and still No late-night songs, no window sill Tapping in the wind like it used to be It didn’t end in screaming There was no great goodbye Just a soft and sudden silence That didn’t care to tell me why The night the house went quiet I heard everything I’d missed Every word we never said Living in the spaces in between the things we did The shadows on the hallway Felt heavier than stone Yeah, the night the house went quiet Was the loudest I’ve ever felt alone Every cupboard kept its secrets shut real tight Like it knew the truth but didn’t want to pick a side I walked through rooms that knew our names But none of them felt quite the same They looked at me like I didn’t belong No shattered glass around me No slammed or broken doors Just a sinking kind of knowing That I’d already lost the war The night the house went quiet I heard everything I’d missed Every laugh we let grow tired Every promise we forgot we’d promised The photographs were honest In a way we never were Yeah, the night the house went quiet I saw how long I’d failed to learn I never thought the end of us Would sound like this… just air No thunder, no confession Just the echo of a prayer For something that had faded Long before we ever knew And all the quiet in the darkness Finally told the truth The night the house went quiet There was nowhere left to hide Every room I stepped into Said, “You’ve been gone a long, long time” And when the silence settled Like dust upon the floor Yeah, the night the house went quiet It didn’t need you here… To tell me you weren’t mine anymore So I turned off the last lamp And let the dark come through ’Cause sometimes losing someone Is just learning what you already knew…