PUPILS OF TIME [INTRO — quiet, almost spoken] Thirty percent Nigeria. Twenty-two Benin and Togo. That’s what the phone says. I kept staring at it like… Okay. But who? [VERSE 1] Thirty percent Nigeria staring off my phone, twenty-two Benin and Togo—blood I never known. Cameroon to Mali, little colors on a screen, telling me where I’m from without telling me what it means. Got a map full of places, no faces attached, percentages and regions, but there’s people that it lacks. Who had my walk? My talk? These eyes? Who got quiet when they’re mad like I do sometimes? Set the phone on the dresser, caught myself in the glass, looked once, looked twice, then started looking past. Same nose. Same skin. Same face I’ve always seen. But for some reason that night… it didn’t look like just me. [PRE-CHORUS] Who had these hands? Who had these eyes? Who did something small one day that kept my bloodline alive? I don’t know. That’s what gets me every time. All these people had to happen before this life became mine. [CHORUS] I thought I was looking at me till I saw everybody behind me. People I couldn’t pick from a crowd still looking through my eyes somehow. Names got lost. Blood didn’t. Roads got crossed. Love didn’t. I don’t know who they were… but I know I’m here because they were. That’s what I see in the pupils of time. [VERSE 2 — CHAIN POCKET] Maybe somebody counted, counted what was left, left became enough, enough became the next. Next became a child, child became a name, name became a family even when the name got changed. Changed became normal. Normal became life. Life kept moving whether history got it right. Right there in the mirror, mirror brought it back— I got all these damn questions a DNA test can’t answer with a map. Can’t tell me who was funny. Who couldn’t cook worth a lick. Who talked too much at dinner. Who everybody went to when something needed fixed. Who had my temper. Who loved too hard. Who’d sit outside thinking when life got hard. That’s the stuff I wanna know. Not just where. Who. [PRE-CHORUS] Who had this laugh? Who had this fight? Who told their babies, “We’re gonna be alright”? And did they ever think way back in their time— some man they’d never meet would be searching for them through his eyes? [CHORUS] I thought I was looking at me till I saw everybody behind me. People I couldn’t pick from a crowd still looking through my eyes somehow. Names got lost. Blood didn’t. Roads got crossed. Love didn’t. I don’t know who they were… but I know I’m here because they were. That’s what I see in the pupils of time. [BRIDGE — EVERYTHING DROPS EXCEPT VOICE + HAND DRUM] Missing pages still belonged to somebody. That’s what hit me. Somebody woke up tired. Somebody fell in love. Somebody made somebody laugh. Somebody buried somebody they loved and still got up the next morning. Regular people. My people. I don’t need to turn every one of ’em into a king or a warrior. They lived. They kept going. That was enough to get me here. [BEAT RETURNS] Then I caught myself in that mirror again… and realized— one day, I’m gonna be the somebody they can’t ask. [FINAL CHORUS] I thought I was looking at me till I saw everybody behind me. Now somebody I ain’t gonna meet might be looking back trying to find me. My name might fade. Blood won’t. Time might change. Love don’t. Maybe they’ll have this same little stare when something heavy’s on their mind. Maybe they’ll wonder who I was… the same way I’m wondering tonight. And maybe for one second, when they look into their own eyes— I’ll be looking back through the pupils of time. [OUTRO — almost spoken] Thirty percent Nigeria. Twenty-two Benin and Togo. That’s where some of us came from. Still don’t know their names. But now I keep thinking… one day somebody might not know mine. So while I’m here— I better leave ’em something worth finding.
