Hollow Branches - Splitting Toward Light

I tried to carve a better man From the marrow of my own hands… But the blade won’t cut deep enough… I am the rot beneath the roots I tend A quiet fault line dressed as discipline Every vow I make grows teeth by night Gnaws through bone, calls it becoming I fed the soil with pieces of me Called it growth, called it holy But something buried started to breathe And it knows my name I don’t break all at once… I splinter slow Like wet wood in a dying fire I am breaking myself into something better And it’s killing me to hold that shape Every version I try to become Leaves another one buried awake I am clawing toward some kind of light… But the light won’t take So I burn in between what I am and what I should be A ghost I can’t remake Soft hands trying to build with stone A heart that won’t stay in its home I feel too much, I feel it wrong Every truth I touch distorts I envy men who just are No fracture, no war, no endless mirror I dissect every breath I take Until nothing feels real I don’t break all at once… I splinter slow Like wet wood in a dying fire I am breaking myself into something better And it’s tearing through every seam Every step toward who I should be Erases who I used to be I am starving for something that fits… But nothing stays So I haunt my own becoming In a thousand unfinished ways I am breaking myself into something better… But I don’t know if it’s me Or just another shape I learned To survive what I couldn’t be The roots don’t ask what they’re growing into… They take what’s buried… And become