In Every Stranger's Eyes

In bus stations at 3 a.m. In the faces of men who’ve stopped looking up In mothers counting coins at the register In the kid who sleeps with his backpack on In the nurse who still smiles after sixteen hours In the old man feeding pigeons bread he can’t afford In the girl who checks her phone for a message That never comes I keep walking And the world keeps showing me I recognize myself In every stranger’s eyes The same tired hope The same quiet fight I recognize myself In every stranger’s eyes In the soldier who came home different In the woman who pretends she doesn’t flinch In the boy who draws maps of places He’s never been allowed to go In the preacher who no longer believes But still opens the door on Sunday In the thief who only steals what he needs And still says sorry to the empty house I keep walking And the world keeps showing me I recognize myself In every stranger’s eyes The same tired hope The same quiet fight I recognize myself In every stranger’s eyes From where I stand on this borrowed ground I look at the sky I didn’t earn And I see the same half-remembered light That once made us think we could still be good All that we touch All that we break All that we love And all that we take All that we bury And all that we keep All that we promise And all that we leave Is written in faces I’ll never know by name But I know them I know them I recognize myself… In every stranger’s eyes [end | long fade into silence]