There are people who cannot say good-bye
They are born this way, this is how they die
They are the keepers of promises, what moves them
does not wear out

Their loyalty will tear apart your clocks
These are the people who can hear the music in songs
They are the vow carriers
The grandmothers who always leave the porchlight on

No one is lost to the one who sees
These are the women widowed
by the men they never married
These are the girls who wait even when you don't come
These are the mothers of orphans
they can't turn a fake into an original
They will hear the prayer in your self-contempt

As distance is measured, people do not end
It is one of those stories
that cannot be written down
except across a lifetime of open doors

There is a holding on beyond letting go
There is a reunion in everybody's chest
This is how we come to
make a family from strangers
This is how we light candles
There are people who will remember you when you meet them
These are the people that you can always call at night
They are the humans turned angels by your asking

With each separation they go to seed again
These are the men who carried you on their shoulders
This is the one you are lonely for
the one who begins and ends your hunger
This is the man who said "Always"
There is a moment of returning
on the other side of every leaving

It is not something I can prove to you in language
This is what we pray about
We can kill what we desire and it grows back
There is something that does not wear you out
It is the third part of any two people who join
It opens and closes

There are people alone who are not apart
This is why we listen to the madman when he speaks

People change but they do not stop
This is how we learn "Forever"
These are the people you can count on
they are the keepers of promises
They are candles lit from each other
They can teach us eternity

We can get what we give, this is the instruction
There are people who do not say good-bye
As distance is measured
You are one of them.