Faces & Names

There was something in the air that day, like gunpowder or sulfur
And soon a wild migration came from upstairs like a storm
I was at a costume party and although nobody noticed
I mingled there stark naked, all my emperor's clothes were torn

When suddenly the sprinkler system ran the makeup down her dress
I must confess I had forgotten who I went to meet there
Something was not right right then
And there I saw you five years later like someone I'd never seen before

And my life flashed before me and exploded into flames
Now I just sit back and laugh, 'cause the only thing that's changed

Are the faces and the names

So I thought I'd say hello but that building it was burning
And you turned and ran away just like the vision I remember
Right then I got run over by a local politician
Who said that segregation would be good for education

So there I was stark naked with a racist politician
In about three feet of water in a building that was burning
We looked to find the exit and he said he owned the building
I was breathing in the suffocation, blowing out the air

And my life flashed before me and exploded into flames
Now I just sit back and laugh, 'cause the only thing that's changed

Are the faces and the names

Now I had knocked myself unconscious, at the time I'd felt like drowning
When I came to I was rolling through emergency room doors
And they left me in the waiting room with work-related head-wound victims
Wondering what happened and still bleeding on the floor

And sitting there my grade-school teacher stared at me and said, "What happened?
"Son, you could have been someone, you could have been so much more"
And I thought about that party and my fine fair-weathered friends
And that burning building and those folks I'd never see again

And my life flashed before me and exploded into flames
Now I just sit back and laugh, 'cause the only thing that's changed

Are the faces and the names