Gold Around the Damage

Title: “Collected in Pieces” Verse 1 You loved me like a ruin Something beautiful and breakable A place to leave your fingerprints And call it something meaningful You traced my hands like borrowed light Turned my kindness into need You drank the warmth straight from my mouth Then called your taking grief Pre-Chorus You never held the whole of me Only the fragments you could use A body is not a promise A heart is not yours to bruise Chorus You knew my hands, but not my healing Knew my lips, but not my name Knew the door, but not the dwelling Knew the spark, but not the flame You gathered me in pieces Like that was all I’d ever be But what you touched was only shadow Not the sacred core of me Verse 2 You liked my eyes when they were open Wide enough to let you in Before they learned the shape of hunger Hiding underneath your skin You leaned against my back like shelter Let me carry what you’d hide And every time I bent beneath it You called that love, I called it pride Pre-Chorus You wanted softness without story Tenderness without the truth But I was never made for keeping By hands that only worship youth Chorus You knew my hands, but not my healing Knew my lips, but not my name Knew the door, but not the dwelling Knew the spark, but not the flame You gathered me in pieces Like that was all I’d ever be But what you touched was only shadow Not the sacred core of me Bridge Now my ribs are learning music My scars are learning how to shine My legs no longer walk toward wreckage My voice is finally mine Let the ghost of who I was Fade softly from your memory You may have held the fragile outline But you never carried me Final Chorus You knew my hands, but not my healing Knew my skin, but not my soul Knew the ache, but not the rising Knew the wound, but not the whole You gathered me in pieces But I remade my dignity And what you lost was never yours— It was the living heart of me