We Belong Here

I held my breath again today
In a place I had the right to be
Nobody saw me turn away
Nobody noticed me

There’s a chair at every table
Where somebody should have been
There’s a photograph with someone missing
Who was never let back in

There’s a worker in the parking lot
Trying to make it through the door
There’s a mother missing birthdays
Who can’t do this anymore

And somewhere in an elevator
Someone holds their breath again
While the person standing next to them
Can’t even smell what they put on

They say, “It’s only perfume”
They say, “It’s all in your mind”
But tell me what we’d gain
By leaving everything behind

We belong here
We have a right to stay
We shouldn’t have to disappear
Just to make it through the day

This is the air we share
It doesn’t stop with you
What you wear goes everywhere
And other people breathe it too

You can choose what goes on your body
We can’t choose the air

We belong here
We belong here

We’ve learned which doors are open
And which ones we can’t cross
We’ve learned to count the little things
And everything they cost

The job we tried to hold on to
The friends we hardly see
The doctor’s office waiting room
Where we were meant to be

Nobody sees the little endings
Nobody hears the quiet goodbyes
They only see us walking out
And never ask us why

We don’t need you to feel it
We don’t need you to agree
We just need you to believe us
When we say we cannot breathe

We belong here
We have a right to stay
We shouldn’t have to disappear
Just to make it through the day

This is the air we share
It doesn’t stop with you
What you wear goes everywhere
And other people breathe it too

You can choose what goes on your body
We can’t choose the air

We belong here
We belong here

I remember walking into rooms
Without a second thought
I remember all the little things
I never knew I’d lost

I remember being carefree
I remember feeling free

I miss that person

I miss the life that used to be

And I know you cannot see it
I know you cannot feel
But you don’t have to live my life
To know that it is real

So ask for fragrance-free air
In the places where we live
At work, at school, at the doctor’s
It’s a change that you can give

Read the labels, ask the questions
Let the evidence be heard
Find the other one in three
And help us spread the word

We are done with disappearing
Done apologizing for our pain
We are more than what we’ve lost
And we’re taking back our place

WE BELONG HERE!
WE HAVE A RIGHT TO STAY!
We will not keep disappearing
Just to get through every day!

THIS IS THE AIR WE SHARE!
IT DOESN’T STOP WITH YOU!
What you wear goes everywhere
And other people breathe it too!

You can choose what goes on your body

We can’t choose the air

WE CAN’T CHOOSE THE AIR!

For the ones who cannot enter
For the ones who cannot stay
For the ones still sitting outside
While the world goes on its way

You are not alone
You are not unseen
There’s a place for you beside us
There’s a place where you can breathe

I held my breath again today

But tomorrow

I’m going to ask for air