I saw a beautiful waitress, her apron stained with the day, A silhouette of patience in a world that’s gone gray. She had a broken smile...a ceramic crack in the mask, Refilling cups for questions that nobody thinks to ask. She let that man have an inch... how she loved this man, But he took a mile and broke her smile with his hands. Now she’s a ghost in the diner, just sweeping up the remains Of a promise he broke with a fistful of pain. We’re the ghosts in the hallway, the stains on the floor! Waiting for a knock on a locked-up door! Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take the whole mile, Hide all the wreckage behind a broken smile. God, it’s a heavy price just to stay in the light...When you’re bleeding but still breathing... yeah, you’re breathing...But you’re just a ghost in the night! Now look at the boy, quiet as a grave in a storm, Living in a house where the edges are sharp and nothing is warm. He was never given joy, never a flicker of light, Just the heavy, hollow sound of his parents losing the fight. See, they just couldn't get off it...the bottle, the bitterness, the pride, So he retreated to the closet, where the monsters have nowhere to hide. Folding himself into the darkness, a human origami of fear, While the people who are supposed to love him are the ones that cause the tears! We’re the ghosts in the hallway, the stains on the floor! Waiting for a knock on a locked-up door! Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take the whole mile, Hide all the wreckage behind a broken smile. God, it’s a heavy price just to stay in the light...When you’re bleeding but still breathing... yeah, you’re breathing...Just a ghost in the night! "And we walk past, don’t we?[scoffs] We see the cracks and we call it 'character.' We see the closet and we call it 'privacy.' But the ink? The ink doesn't lie. Look at the man on the corner." There’s a dirty old man, drunk, laying flat on the stone, A king without a kingdom, chilled right down to the bone! Sidewalk for a mattress, the city for a shroud, While the 'thank you for your service' crowd talks a little too loud! Got those military tattoos... faded, blue, and torn, If they could only talk, they’d scream about the day he was born! And the day that he died... not the one on the headstone, no!... The day his soul stayed in the trenches while his body had to go! The waitress wipes the counter at the end of the night. The boy in the closet holds his breath tight. The old man outside curls into the cold, Three quiet tragedies nobody’s told. Different streets. Different scars. Different stories under the same neon stars. And somewhere between the silence and the noise… Someone saw them.(pause, music drops almost silent) You saw the waitress smile. You saw the boy disappear. You stepped past the old man Pretending he wasn’t there. Mercy’s an inch… Silence a mile. And every one of us hides Behind a broken smile. You are the fourth shadow on the wall. The one who walked past. The one who stayed silent. The one who let the world take its toll. Mercy’s an inch. Silence… a mile. Now open your eyes, ‘Cause you’re wearing the same broken smile. We’re the ghosts in the hallway, the stains on the floor! Waiting for a knock on a locked-up door! Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take the whole mile, Hide all the wreckage behind a broken smile. God, it’s a heavy price just to stay in the light...When you’re bleeding but still breathing... yeah, you’re breathing...Just a ghost in the night! Ohh it’s a heavy price just to stay in the light... When you’re bleeding but still breathing... yeah, you’re breathing[scoffs]..
