GATE SEVENTEEN

Boarding pass in my palm like a small confession
Everybody’s going somewhere
Nobody’s telling the truth about why
Gate Seventeen
I’m not rich enough to float, not poor enough to disappear
So I watch
And I carry what I couldn’t fix

Neon floor lights, caffeine prayers
Glass walls holding strangers’ stares
I see lovers in matching coats
I see ghosts in economy rows
A businessman laughs in a private line
A mother counts coins one more time
And outside the doors where the cold air bleeds
Someone sleeps on yesterday’s needs

I’m in the middle of it, always in between
Between the saints and the sirens, between gold and gasoline
And the city behind me hums like a hymn
Like a hymn
Like a hymn

I’m leaving, I’m leaving, I’m leaving again
With my heart in a carry on, folded like a sin
I kiss the sky through a window screen
Gate Seventeen, Gate Seventeen
I’m breathing, I’m breathing, don’t break, don’t bend
Love and loss in the same old wind
If there’s a god in the in between
Meet me at Gate Seventeen

Duty free diamonds, cheap cologne
Some people buy peace like it’s perfume to own
I hear a sermon in the vending machine
Coins fall down like a tambourine
A monk on a poster sells silence bright
A kid in the hallway won’t stop crying
Security eyes like a practiced blade
And I wonder who gets saved

I’m in the middle of it, always in between
Between the polished marble and the cracked concrete
And my name in their system looks clean
Looks clean
Looks clean

I’m leaving, I’m leaving, I’m leaving again
With my heart in a carry on, folded like a sin
I kiss the sky through a window screen
Gate Seventeen, Gate Seventeen
I’m breathing, I’m breathing, don’t break, don’t bend
Love and loss in the same old wind
If there’s a god in the in between
Meet me at Gate Seventeen

I seen saints in sneakers, I seen kings in debt
I seen tears in first class, I ain’t seen no reset
I’m a middle seat witness, I don’t preach, I record
Every face a monument, every bruise a passport
Streetlight halos, bus stop beds
Rich kids bored and the poor ones dread
I don’t judge, I measure the air
How heavy is hope when you drag it upstairs
Love left notes in my ribcage seams
Loss taps Morse code through the overhead beams
And I still chase meaning through a boarding call
Tell me, who do we pray to in the loudest hall

Woahhhhh
Woahhhhh

I’m leaving, I’m leaving, I’m leaving again
With my heart in a carry on, folded like a sin
I kiss the sky through a window screen
Gate Seventeen, Gate Seventeen
I’m breathing, I’m breathing, don’t break, don’t bend
Love and loss in the same old wind
If there’s a god in the in between
Meet me at Gate Seventeen

Meet me at Gate Seventeen
Boarding