“I stare out at my city on another difficult day”

Kate Tempest – People’s Faces

It’s coming to pass
My countries coming apart
The whole thing’s becoming
Such a bumbling farce

Was that a pivotal historical moment
We just went stumbling past?
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 pretence 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 back’s 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 back’s 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

Beause the days are not days but strange symptoms

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 can 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 back’s 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

Image © Julian Broad

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