We weren’t meant to live this way
these hollowed hearts, these sorrowed souls
Time won’t dull what cuts us, love
and faith could never fill these holes
Behind the polished posturing
between each drug-store-perfumed line
the fear and abstract emptiness
still beg to be defined

Instead, we carve out memories
old wounds split fresh by tireless teeth
and press the past through shattered glass
‘til what remains looks like belief
when viewed through fractured mirrors
false mosaics we’ve designed
to guard against reflections
of what’s far too close behind

And this is what will ruin us
leaves us blind and unprepared
when our boldly charging forward
is betrayed for running scared
Alone, we grow more vulnerable
behind walls we’ve erected
on the fault lines of our failures
to pretend ourselves protected

When the blemished mask is lifted
what is left is only cold
‘neath the crass, seductive safety
sewn into complacent folds
We weren’t meant to live like this
these borrowed breaths, these gilded tongues
they speak of histories too brief
to claim we aren’t all dying young