My Mother’s House

I wrote this song initially in 1998, during the last night I ever spent there. It was on The Caution Children (TX)‘s EP At Play.

I just taped the last box up
Took it out to my pickup truck
With the rest of my childhood
Precious things all packed up good

There’s nothing left to keep me here
Everybody that I hold dear
Either died or moved away
There’s no reason for me to stay

Chorus:
The world’s a scary place when you’re on your own
And I’m all packed up and all moved out
Goodbye to the safest place I’ve ever known
Goodbye to my mother’s house

It’s hard to see it so empty
Nothing left now but memories
In the room where I grew up
The back porch where I fell in love

I found a beat up old scrapbook
With a picture my daddy took
Of mom sitting in the sun
She looked so happy and young

Chorus:
The world’s a scary place when you’re on your own
And I’m all packed up and all moved out
Goodbye to the safest place I’ve ever known
Goodbye to my mother’s house

I’ll drive once more through my hometown
Radio off, the windows down
Carve the sights hard on my mind
Then I’ll leave here for the last time

Chorus:
The world’s a scary place when you’re on your own
And I’m all packed up and all moved out
Goodbye to the safest place I’ve ever known
Goodbye to my mother’s house

The world is a different place
When you lose what you can’t replace
Gotta make it through somehow
Baby, I’m an orphan now