[Inspired by outside influence.] [Intro] When I was little, love wore glass slippers. It crossed oceans. It broke curses. It knew your heart before it knew your face. So tell me... Where is love? [Verse 1] I learned the stories before I learned the truth, That someone good would someday choose The awkward laugh, the frightened dreams, The girl beneath the pretty things. But growing up got complicated. Compliments came with expectations. They'd say my eyes were beautiful, then never ask what made me cry. They loved the dress. They loved the photograph. Loved having something others wanted. But every time I opened up, they reached for everything except my heart. [Pre-Chorus] Maybe I mistook attention for somebody seeing me. Maybe wanting isn't loving. God, I wish I'd learned that earlier. [Chorus] Where is love when everybody wants the surface? Where is love when being wanted leaves you worthless? Where is love when they call you beautiful but never learn your mind? If you love me, why am I lonelier every time you leave my side? Where is love? Not lust. Not praise. Not hands that disappear when beauty fades. Where is love? I want the kind that looks into my eyes and stays. [Drop] Where-where-where— IS LOVE? See me. See me. SEE ME. Not the body— ME. [Verse 2] I started dressing for approval, then hated mirrors when it came. Learned how quickly admiration turns into another kind of cage. Too much skin, not enough. Too quiet, too loud. Be desirable, but somehow never know you're desired. Be beautiful, but don't believe it. Be wanted, but don't have needs. Smile when they look at you like you're something they can keep. And underneath all that noise was still that little girl waiting for someone to ask her favorite song. Waiting for someone to notice when she went silent. Waiting to hear: "I don't want anything from you. I just like who you are." [Chorus] Where is love when everybody wants the surface? Where is love when being wanted leaves you worthless? Where is love when they call you beautiful but never learn your mind? If you love me, why am I lonelier every time you leave my side? Where is love? Not lust. Not praise. Not promises made to get their way. Where is love? I want the kind that still sees me when the makeup washes away. [Bridge] I don't hate my beauty. That's important. I spent too many years thinking my face was somehow guilty for what other people chose to do with it. It isn't. My body isn't the villain. My softness isn't stupidity. Wanting romance didn't make me naive. Wanting to be loved didn't make me weak. I was simply asking the wrong people to give me something they never learned to carry. [Build] And maybe the fairy tales got one thing right: Love should break the curse. It shouldn't become one. [Final Chorus] I know where love is now. It doesn't demand that I get smaller. It doesn't touch me then forget my name tomorrow. Love asks questions. Love listens. Love knows when I am scared. Love doesn't call possession proof that somebody cares. And until that love finds me, I won't trade myself away. I'd rather sleep alone than wake beside someone who only loves my face. I know where love begins. Right here. When I finally look inside and see a woman worth protecting, worth respecting, worth knowing, worth choosing— even when nobody is watching. [Final Drop] LOVE ME WHOLE. Or don't love me. Whole-whole-whole... [Outro] I still believe in love. Just not the version that asks me to disappear inside it. So where is love? Someday, maybe in somebody else's hands. But tonight... it's finally in mine. [End]
