Smiling At Strangers On Trains

It was the strangest thing today
I saw new footprints in abandoned pathways
Beneath forgotten undergrowth something stirring again
You were a single red blood cell, but I lost you
In this knot of capillaries, but you were bringing me oxygen when
I needed it most in the smoke

And you were always as far as mongolia
As close as my clothes, your presence pervading, but
It still never shows
As close as the answer I never quite know
Or can't quite remember
Your distance insidious, as soft as a blow
Your shadow is with me wherever I go

It's on the tip of my tongue but still I never quite know
Or can't quite remember
I don't quite remember
The forced proximity of a million
Different mike leigh movies makes me long
For the fresh air of a familiar face
And not the violence of loneliness, nor the unease
Of surrounded seclusion

I keep nearly missing you around corners
And in passing trains
And if I'd known that you weren't so far away
That you were never that far away
I could've rode this
Train smiling