(Verse 1) Have you ever looked inside the empty faces, To the center of despair, where hope has died? Have you ever met the haunted eyes of children, Who have gazed upon a scene of blood and death? Have you looked into the torment of a mother, Cradling her mutilated, bloody babe? Have you felt the horror of the silent screaming, From a woman locked in violation’s shade? (Chorus) Have you ever dared to walk, Walk among the Shadows of life? Have you ever dared to open your heart, To truly feel their pain? Or do you always hide, Turn your face, And look away? (Verse 2) Have you ever seen the trusting eyes of creatures, Turn through fear to violence at uncaring hands? Have you ever looked inside the frightened depths, Of a beaten soul that no one understands? Have you ever watched them suffer in the silence, Too afraid to fight, they simply bow and die, Seeking comfort in the dark, and soft, and warm, To hide from all the cruelty under the sky? (Chorus) Have you ever dared to walk, Walk among the Shadows of life? Have you ever dared to open your heart, To truly feel their pain? Or do you always hide, Turn your face, And look away? (Verse 3) Have you ever walked the cold and concrete alleys, Where the forgotten sleep in cardboard shrouds? Spit upon by progress, begged to be invisible, Just a ghost ghosting through the indifferent crowds. Have you looked into the hollow of their hunger, While the wealthy count the coins of their success? Have you seen the slow decay of human dignity, Left to wither in the dirt of loneliness? (Chorus) Have you ever dared to walk, Walk among the Shadows of life? Have you ever dared to open your heart, To truly feel their pain? Or do you always hide, Turn your face, And look away? (Verse 4) Have you ever walked among the ash and rubble, Of a home that echoed just an hour before with song? Have you smelled the dust of history reduced to powder, Where the innocent pay the price for what the tyrants long? Have you watched the dawn break cold upon the ruin, Where tomorrow is a ghost that will not rise? Have you stood within the quiet of the aftermath, And seen the world reflected through their broken eyes? (Chorus) Have you ever dared to walk, Walk among the Shadows of life? Have you ever dared to open your heart, To truly feel their pain? Or do you always hide, Turn your face, And look away? (Verse 5) Have you ever stood atop the scarred and bleeding earth, Where the rivers choke and ancient forests weep? Have you heard the world herself cry out in agony, For the promises mankind refused to keep? We have poisoned every well and burned the canopy, Trading beauty for a short and selfish crown, Have you ever watched the cradle of existence, Slowly, surely, burning down? (Chorus) Have you ever dared to walk, Walk among the Shadows of life? Have you ever dared to open your heart, To truly feel their pain? Or do you always hide, Turn your face, And look away? (instrumental break) So we look away... but for how much longer? How many shadows must we cross before we break? How many shattered lives, how many weeping earths, Will it take for us to finally awake? When do we stop the bleeding? When do we choose to see? If we are the ones who build the dark... When do we set them free? (Music stops sharply on a single, lingering echo) When do we change? Or is it already too late?
