## Walking Together: Songs for Solidarity ## This is an entry in the Walking Together songwriting contest. The WEF estimates there are over 150 million people without homes worldwide. This project is aimed at supporting efforts to help people "made of potential" out of homelessness in co-operation with Homeless Entrepreneurs. The winning song will be chosen as an anthem for HE's upcoming "Great Walk" and featured in a music video by David Israel. For more details and to find out how you can enter, visit songs-for-solidarity.web.app To see entries, check out the playlist here: https://suno.com/playlist/a6521e67-4924-41b8-a5aa-bf4564ae2cea ### Arrows scratched in subway walls point to safe havens Three matches crossed means "police here at night" A circle with a line: "dangerous place, stay away" Our secret alphabet keeps us alive While you walk past our invisible maps Drawn in chalk, carved in benches, whispered in shadows From New York to Beijing Our language never changes Hunger speaks in the same tone Fear shivers in the same corners We are the scholars of survival Reading stories written in silence We know which dumpsters fill with bread at midnight Which vents blow warm air in December frost Library bathrooms open earliest Hospital waiting rooms won't kick you out These are our textbooks, our survival guide Passed down in whispers and knowing nods You see madness in our mumbled conversations But we're discussing which shelter has beds tonight You see chaos in our collected things But each item is a lifeline, carefully chosen Every cardboard piece is potential shelter Every bottle cap might buy tomorrow's coffee At dawn we fold our homes into backpacks Carry our lives in plastic bags Some of us were teachers, drivers, nurses Before the rent climbed higher than our reach Before prescriptions cost more than food Before divorce, disease, or disaster struck From New York to Beijing Our language never changes Hunger speaks in the same tone Fear shivers in the same corners We are the scholars of survival Reading stories written in silence Look closer at the marks we leave Our sophisticated survival system Built over centuries of shared suffering We're not just surviving We're teaching each other how to live In a world that pretends not to see us ...In a world that pretends not to see us... From New York to Beijing Our language never changes Hunger speaks in the same tone Fear shivers in the same corners We are the scholars of survival Reading stories written in silence