The speaker is stuck in a dull working day, surrounded by demanding customers, bossy managers and gossiping colleagues. To escape, he doodles faces on scraps of paper, and over time these drawings have become a crowd he feels he has grown up with. The women are mostly beautiful, with full lips and long lashes, yet they look past him rather than at him. The men have moustaches and thick brows, and seem grim and a little sad.
The mood starts out weary and slips into something quieter and more curious. By the end, the speaker is no longer just passing time. He wonders whether these faces come from his dreams, from past or future lives, or from the shadows he senses behind him. His last question suggests the strangers he draws may be parts of himself he doesn't fully know. A small habit of boredom becomes a way of looking inward.