I built an empire
of love
but this house was not a home

and all you ever did was paint the walls
with tears
and hang pictures
of wounding words

i got bone-tired of renovating
this place you called a home

i tried turning on the fire place
to warm up those crazy cold thoughts
i had every single night
as i heard you tear through the house
smashing vases of sympathy over your knee

i tried hanging a sign on the front door
that invited affinity
putting a name on this house as ours
together forever
but nothing ever worked

i tried believing that i could live
in this place of happiness with you
but that was impossible

because there was never any happiness to begin with

it was all just false promises and empty hope
disguised as your need to have me with you
and only you

and i wrote it all down to make sense of it
because maybe if i saw it

i would know that this was a house and not a home

but all i ever did was try and rebuild
everything you tore down
over and over
while i lived in that empty place
you called a heart

and finally, i knew it was never a home
it was just an empty house