Lyrics The Stranger at My Door - Brandi Carlile

The Stranger at My Door

I’ve seen the firewatcher’s daughter
Watching fires burn from smoke to black
There’s nothing she won’t burn, from styrofoam to urns
To someone else’s ashes in a sack
You can scorch the metal, you can even melt the glass
You can pass the time here, fire lives into the past
An all-consuming flame that refines and new begins
It’ll take your family heirlooms, but it can take your darkest sins
It’s a good ol' bedtime story, give you nightmares 'til you die
And the ones who love to tell 'em hide the mischief in their eyes
Condemn their sons to Hades and Gehenna is full of guys, alive and well
But there ain’t no hell for a firewatcher’s daughter
We exorcize the demons of the things we used to know
The gnashing of the teeth become the remnants of our homes
We think we’re moving on, from materials we long
To forget we ever sold our souls to own
There’s a chilling absolution that we’re given at our birth
A powerful delusion and a plague upon the earth
But nothing scares me more than the stranger at my door
Who I fail to give shelter, time, and worth
Yeah, the good ol' bedtime stories give you nightmares 'til you die
And the ones who love to tell 'em hide the mischief in their eyes
Condemn their sons to Hades and Gehenna is full of guys, alive and well
But there ain’t no hell for a firewatcher’s daughter