Open House Lyrics - Steve Forbert

Open house now for your fading heart, 

Tell your ghost it's time to hide; 

Strangers won't know when to stop and start 

Once they've fin'ly got inside. 

Spir'ling staircase toward your dusty mind, 

With crates and boxes and bags and trunks; 

No one cares what tender dreams they'll find, 

All they'll see up there is junk 

With silver dollars from a ragdoll's ear 

And merc'ry dimes for buttons, too, 

And flutes and whistles only kids can hear 

And peacock feathers green and blue. 

Deep depression in a walnut grain, 

Afternoons on rainy days; 

Once it stacked up well in both your brains, 

And now it's all some purple haze 

With vandals picking locks and breaking doors 

And smashing keepsakes all around; 

Souvenirs of love and foreign shores 

And scrapbook pages all unbound. 

It's open house now for your fading heart, 

Tell your ghost it's time to hide; 

Strangers won't know when to stop and start 

Once they've fin'ly got inside.