I was six years old standing on a sidewalk I didn't choose when a stranger poured his ending all over everything I knew The sky went orange and the world just kept on turning nobody stopped the birds from singing while a man became the burning And I looked at life and said how can you just stand there how can you let this happen like you don't even care I learned fear from a stranger on an ordinary day he handed me a terror I carried all the way Death was something watching something cruel and close wearing other people's faces showing up when I needed it least I grew up checking shadows sleeping with the light on low building walls around a self I didn't know I didn't know Every siren was a warning every silence held a threat I thought if I stayed afraid enough somehow I'd be safe from it But life just kept on breathing indifferent as the rain not cold, not cruel, not taunting me just here, just the same I learned fear from a stranger on an ordinary day he handed me a terror I carried all the way Death was something watching something cruel and close wearing other people's faces showing up when I needed it least Then one day I stopped running turned around to face the dark and what I found was nothing like an open field, no walls, no guard No stranger standing over me no fire waiting at the door just this — just quiet — just whatever this is that was always here before I never found a beginning I can't find where it ends the man, the fire, the six year old all of it just is, just was, just when Fear was never the truth of it death was never the enemy I learned fear from a stranger but I unlearned it from me I learned fear from a stranger on an ordinary day but I walked back through that fire and I laid the terror down Death was never watching never cruel, never close just the other name for living just the one I needed most
