Verse 1
She sleeps on her side of the California king
I count the ceiling cracks like they mean anything
We talk about the weather and the price of everything
The grocery list the Wi-Fi bill the same old ring
The kids left their echoes in the rooms down the hall
Posters still curled where the Blu-Tack lost the war
Now it’s just footsteps that don’t answer when you call
Two strangers in the hall
Chorus
We raised a family paid the mortgage twice
Learned every silence can cut like ice
Twenty-eight years and I still don’t know
How you take your coffee anymore
No I don’t know how you take your coffee anymore
Verse 2
I reach for her shoulder in the half-light of three
She flinches just slightly like it isn’t still me
We used to burn the sheets down to the mattress springs
Now we keep to our borders like rival kings
I found her old love letters in a shoebox last June
Read them by flashlight like a guilty full moon
Every word still perfect every promise still tall
Now we’re two strangers in the hall
Bridge (near-spoken very sparse)
We never broke the vows we just let them rust
Turned passion to habit turned fire to dust
Some couples explode some just quietly stall
Two strangers in the hall
Final Chorus (voice lifts gently)
So here’s to the children we sent out in the world
Here’s to the boy and the red-headed girl
They’ll never know how love can grow this small
Just two strangers…
Two strangers in the hall
