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 the 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