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The Passerby

from You Can Take It From Here by Dominic Rae

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about

Sometime in December, my friends and I were going skating in town when we were stopped by a homeless man in the street. He talked to us and told us that he had little to his name and no place to stay, but he spent his days writing poems. He had a plastic bag with a few pads of paper and pens, and he showed us some of his work. I didn't have much cash on me, but I paid him a fiver for one of his poems, 'To My Demons Within'. He called himself The Passerby, and I went home that day and wrote this song, inspired by and dedicated to him.

thects.org.uk/volunteering-with-young-homeless
www.stannesdaycentre.org.uk/volunteers.html
stpetersbrighton.org/safehaven

If you can, please give something or help out with one of the charities linked above.

Tuning: FACGCe

lyrics

The Passerby with the pale, sallow skin
Uncomfortable in the clothes that he is in
In his bag he holds paper and pen
Clutched between his fingers, so, so thin

And he wanders day to day on these grey streets
He wonders when he'll next have food to eat
A penny for his soul sketched out in crayon
And two for the demons hid within

And he walks, and walks, and walks along
The roads that take him back to where he's been
Neither sin to his soul nor a virtue in his heart
To give

In the corner of my eye
The passerby

A poet and a nomad and a muse
With feet bruised from the cobbles 'neath his shoes
But the people will not listen, oh the people do not care
As they drink and hate and smoke and they abuse

And it's cold outside as he sits down in a door
A lighter's sputtered spark to keep him warm
Uncertain of his past, god he hasn't slept in three days

His bag hangs loose beside him as he
Looks up to the sky,
The passerby, his future cluttered and
Unsure

His bag suddenly gone, as a
Stranger carried on, and
The passerby was pushed to the floor
His poems and his demons lost for sure

The passerby with the pale, sallow skin
Uncomfortable in the clothes that he is in
His pen and paper stolen, and his lungs take away
And his demon walks no longer with him

In the corner of my eye,
In the corner of my eye,
In the corner of my eye,

He passes by

credits

from You Can Take It From Here, released September 1, 2017

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Dominic Rae Brighton, UK

Dominic Rae is a musician and sound engineer, currently stationed in Brighton.

Centred on folk and emo and learning the ropes of sound, song by song by song.

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