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Strangers (Right Place, Right Time)
We pour our heart out to strangers in coffee houses
and people begging on the street.
We don’t put up our walls when we know
they don’t have a chance to tear them down.
It’s so much easier to let the cashier at the gas station
in Omaha know all the things you were
too afraid to tell him before he left.
It’s so much easier to laugh at your mistakes
with people who didn’t see you go through them.
We were told at a young age not to talk to strangers.
To say nothing to the people sitting next to us on the
bus and walking their dogs in the park.
But it was exhilarating, at that young age,
to disobey our parents and become friends with the
nice, colorful lady who lived on the corner
with her shopping cart filled with bags and other old things.
So it’s no surprise that now, after growing up and
realizing that the world is different from when you were five
and your daddy still came home every night; now you still find
comfort in confiding to those so unlike yourself.
Those who can take your burdens away just by listening;
those who will never say a word.
It’s so much easier to tell your life story to
the guy on the subway and the friend
of your grandma in the nursing home.
It’s hard to be fearless and face the people you love
with the truth; it’s hard to show them what’s
hiding in your heart, pounding on the
door to be let out.
It’s so much easier to kiss a stranger and
let them thouch you, than to go home
and face your lover and the habitual lies
that have plagued your home for years.
Our mothers took great care in making sure
we walked on the opposite side of the street
from curious strangers, but as always,
we ignore what our mothers say and then let
everything out to the first unknown person
who crosses our path.
It’s beautiful, what we must know
about thousands of strangers.
We’re all flies on the wall, as long as
we’re not in our own social circles.
We’re all flies on the wall; we hear secrets and,
because they told us
and not their best friend, we let their secrets be.
That’s the beauty of strangers.
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