Last Bus Home

[intro]
Rain on the glass, hum of the engine low
Neon smearing through the window's glow

[verse 1]
Two dollars in change still warm in my fist
Driver don't look up, ain't nobody he missed
Seat's got a rip and a burn from a cigarette
Somebody's coat smells like smoke and regret

[verse 2]
Girl in the back crying into her phone
Man in a suit keeps checking he's alone
Bus swings hard past the shuttered laundromat
Streetlights like a countdown, yellow to black

[chorus]
This is the last bus home, headlights through the rain
Every stop a heartbeat, every window a frame
Nobody's talking, but everybody's telling
The same old story — midnight's cheap hotel
Last bus home, and I ride it like a prayer
Watching the city blur like it doesn't care

[verse 3]
Past the all-night diner, past the empty mall
Past the couple arguing outside the last call
The heater rattles, breath fogs up the pane
I trace my name and watch it fade again

[bridge]
Twenty-three stops between me and my bed
Twenty-three lives I'll never meet instead
The driver hums something I almost know
Some kind of lullaby from forty years ago

[chorus]
This is the last bus home, headlights through the rain
Every stop a heartbeat, every window a frame
Nobody's talking, but everybody's telling
The same old story — midnight's cheap hotel
Last bus home, and I ride it like a prayer
Watching the city blur like it doesn't care

[outro]
Bells chime, the doors sigh open wide
Empty street, my stop, the long walk inside
The bus pulls off trailing amber down the hill
The city keeps humming — it always will
It always will