PORCELAIN CAGE [Intro | whispered, fragile] You made a prison look like home, Soft lights over broken bones. Every door was painted gold. Every lock was yours to hold. [Verse 1 | restrained clean → rhythmic emo-rap] Your love is a locked room, velvet walls, Soft enough to swallow calls. Halo rusted at the rim, Holy smile, but something grim. I learned your footsteps down the hall, Which floorboards meant another war. Learned how silence changed your face, Learned which words could shake the place. I'm the ghost inside your frames, Hung beneath somebody's blame. You kiss me like a guillotine, Tender right before it swings. Every "sorry" bought one night. Every morning rewrote the fight. You broke the glass, then swept the floor, And asked what I was crying for. [Pre-Chorus | drums building] I kept calling damage love. Kept saying we were strong enough. But my reflection finally said: How much of you is left? [Chorus | huge melodic hook] This ain't love. It's a porcelain cage. Pretty from far, but cracked with rage. You say you'll shatter if I leave, While I'm the one split at the seams. This ain't home if home means fear. Three little shadows watch from here. So let the porcelain hit the floor. I'm not your prisoner anymore. [Verse 2 | rap pocket, tighter internal rhyme] Now I walk the hallway counting, Breaths between the doors and shouting. Measure every sentence twice, Like one wrong word could roll the dice. You plant doubt beneath my skin, Then ask me where the doubt begins. Turn my memory inside out, Feed me guilt and call it doubt. But I remember who I was Before survival became love. Before your weather filled my lungs. Before I swallowed back my tongue. Then I saw three faces freeze When voices climbed above the peace. That's when something changed in me. I can lose you. Not them. [Chorus | scream doubles entering] This ain't love. It's a porcelain cage. Pretty from far, but cracked with rage. You say you'll shatter if I leave, While I'm the one split at the seams. This ain't home if home means fear. Three little shadows watch from here. So let the porcelain hit the floor. I'm not your prisoner anymore. [Bridge | instruments collapse → spoken vocal] I used to think staying made me strong. Maybe leaving does. I used to think taking every hit kept everybody safe. It didn't. Children learn what love means by watching what we call love. And I won't teach them that fear belongs inside it. [Build | clean vocal rising into scream] So call me cold. Call me cruel. Make me the villain if that's what you need. I'll carry your version of me. They won't carry this. [Breakdown | Drop F, half-time, gang responses] BREAK. THE. CAGE. [gang] BREAK THE CAGE. LET THE PRETTY LIE COLLAPSE. [gang] LET IT BREAK. NO MORE WALKING ON THE GLASS. NO MORE "SORRY." NO MORE THREATS. NO MORE CHILDREN HOLDING THEIR BREATH. [guttural] YOU DON'T GET TO CALL FEAR LOVE. [Final Chorus | clean lead + scream doubles + gang vocals] THIS AIN'T LOVE. IT'S A PORCELAIN CAGE. I watched it crack with every rage. You said you'd shatter if I leave. I nearly shattered trying to believe. This ain't home if home means fear. Three little shadows brought me here. Let every porcelain promise fall. I'd rather have nothing than live behind these walls. [Final refrain | instruments dropping away] You can paint me as the monster. You can curse me when I go. But they'll never learn that hurting is the price of being loved. [Outro | whispered] The cage was beautiful. That's why it took so long to see the bars. [glass crack] But porcelain breaks. And so do patterns. [end]
