This Is Us

The morning paper's on the table with its comic strips and gloom While the fire burns out gently on the far side of the room I think of all the stories, the dramas of the day Then toss them on the fire, to watch them burn away And as the smoke is rising from the ashes in the hearth I ask myself this question, How have I played a part? Through all the machinations The glory and the loss This is me, this is you This is us We may be lost in lonely darkness or found in some new flame Caught up in a wave of strong belief or wallowing in shame We're the sea of our humanity, we curse and we caress We're the lofty expectations that end in something less We're the painful tears of anguish or pure unbridled joy We're the laughter of that little girl or bouncing little boy We're the ones who leave our homeland through fear or flickering hope We're the ones who face the dawning day wondering how we'll cope We're the hopeful and the hopeless The calmness and the fuss This is me, this is you This is us We're the mistakes that we have made in vain Then carried on all the same We're the ones who smile, the ones who frown, The ones who build, then tear it down We're the us who walk this planet, The us who breathe this air The us who love who we will love, Who care or do not care From the verdant living forests To the barren piles of dust This is me, this is you This is us We're the oppressed and the oppressors, the arrogant, the kind The ones who measure out each word or rant out of our minds We're the hundreds of thousands who take to the street We're the chubby little toddlers the first time on their feet We're the ones who fall to weakness, who choose to walk away We're the ones who find the inner strength to face it all and stay On the endless sands of caring Through the flowing tides of trust This is me, this is you This is us