Hallway Light

The receiver cools in my hand

Your last word still hanging there

I count the cracks in the paint

Hallway bulb keeps losing its nerve I keep mine where nobody sees

Your name goes dark on the glass And I forget how to

leave The carpet smells like rain and dust The stairwell hums through

the wall I almost call you back again But nothing good would

fall

If I move, the floor might answer If I stay,

the silence knows There is a door inside my chest

Half open, almost closed (ahhhh)

I am under the failing light

Trying not to break tonight

You are gone, but I am here Holding on to what is

clear Let it flicker,

let it fade I can stand inside the ache (ooh)

The elevator clicks below Someone laughs,

then disappears I press my spine against the door And swallow all

the years I loved you loud inside my head But quiet on

the line Now every second asks me why I made your ending

mine

There is no clean way through goodbye No gentle map for letting

go I turn the dead phone in my palm Like it might

learn to glow Then somewhere under all this hurt A smaller truth

appears I can be alone right now And still be standing here

I am under the failing light

Trying not to break tonight

You are gone, but I am here Holding on to what is

clear Let it flicker,

let it fade

I can stand inside the ache If the morning finds me changed

I will answer to my name (ooh)

The light stays on

I let it (ahhhh)