People's Faces

It's coming to pass My country's coming apart The whole thing's becoming Such a bumbling farce Was that a pivotal historical moment We just went stumbling past? Well, here we are Dancing in the rumbling dark So come a little closer Give me something to grasp Give me your beautiful, crumbling heart Another disaster, catharsis Another half-discarded mirage Another mask slips I face off with the physical My head's ringing from the love of the stars There is too much pretense here And too much depends on the fragile wages And extortionate rents here We're working every dread day that is given us Feeling like the person people meet really isn't us Like we're going to buckle underneath the trouble Like any minute now the struggle's going to finish us And then we smile at all our friends It's hard We got our heads down and our hackles up Our backs against the wall I can feel you aching None of this was written in stone There is nothing we're forbidden to know And I can feel things changing Even when I'm weak and I'm breaking I'll stand weeping at the train station 'Cause I can see your faces There is so much peace to be found in people's faces I saw it roaring I felt it clawing at my clothes like a grieving friend It said, "there are no new beginnings Until everybody sees that the old ways need to end" But it's hard to accept that we're all one and the same flesh Given the rampant divisions between oppressor and oppressed But we are though More empathy, less greed, more respect All I've got to say has already been said I mean, you heard it from yourself When you were lying in your bed and couldn't sleep Thinking, "couldn't we be doing this differently?" I'm listening to every little whisper in the distance singing hymns And I can I can feel things changing But it's so hard We got our heads down and our hackles up Our backs against the wall I can feel your heart racing None of this was written in stone The currents fast but the river moves slow And I can feel things changing Even when I'm weak and I'm breaking I stand weeping at the train station 'Cause I can see your faces There is so much peace to be found in people's faces It's not enough To imagine we'll be happy when we've Got enough stuff All this stuff is blocking us I'm neat with no chaser I'm all spirit, but I'm sinking Because the days are not days but strange symptoms And this age is our age But our age is rage sinking to beige And, yes, our children are brave But their mission is vague Now, I don't have the answers But there are still things to say I stare out at my city on another difficult day And I scream inwardly, "when will this change?" I'm beginning to fade But my sanity's saved 'cause I see your faces My sanity's saved 'cause I can see your faces It's hard We got our heads down and our hackles up Our backs against the wall I can feel your heart racing None of this was written in stone The current's fast but the river moves slow And I can feel things changing Even when I'm weak and I'm breaking I stand weeping at the train station 'Cause I can see your faces I love people's faces