The House Where I was Raised

My parents bought a rundown place
A house out in the hills
For twenty years that’s where our family stayed
They made that house into a home
The best that they could build:
The house where I was raised

Life came on, as life will do
For my two sisters and me
Our cracked and crooked foundations were laid
As time went by I saw that I
Was growing up to be
A little like the house where I was raised

At night-time I can close my eyes
And see every detail, every crack
Of the rooms where all my hopes and fears were made
When morning comes, the memory fades
I’m never going back
To the house where I was raised

We lost that house and cleaned it out
When my dad got laid off:
Twenty years packed up and cleared in days. I burned the last of what was left
And choked on the dust of
The house where I first got laid

Looking back, I choose to cherish
The hope over what happened to
The family that house held as it frayed
The new folks there have done it up
And it’ll never be the same:
The house where I was raised