Leonard Cohen

What I’m doing here

I do not know if the world has lied

I have lied

I do not know if the world has conspired against love

I have conspired against love

The atmosphere of torture is no comfort

I have tortured

Even without the mushroom cloud

Still I would have hated

Listen

I would have done the same things

Even if there were no death

I will not be held like a drunkard

Under the cold tap of facts

I refuse the universal alibi

Like an empty telephone booth passed at night

And remembered

Like mirrors in a movie palace lobby consulted

Only on the way out

Like a manic who binds a thousand

Into strange brotherhood

I wait

For each one of you to confess

I wonder how many people in this city

I wonder how many people in this city

Live in furnished rooms.

Late at night when I look out at the buildings

I swear I see a face in every window

Looking back at me,

And when I turn away

I wonder how many go back to their desks

And write this down.