Behind Your Painted Eyes

Shadows in the hallway
Candles claw the walls
Your name in the cracked glass
Still bleeding from the fall

You stitched yourself from borrowed skin
Every story
Safety pin
Laughing in my open door
With pockets full of someone else's war

I let you write your fiction on my ribs
Every line a quiet little fib
How did I miss the seams
Splitting through my dreams

You never were who you pretend to be
Every word
Another cut in me
I held my breath inside your borrowed scene
While you painted over everything I'd seen
You never were who you pretend to be
Just a stranger in the shape of what I need
I tore the mask and all that's left is empty
You never were who you pretend to be

You practiced every perfect lie
Like makeup smeared across your eyes
You fed me fragments
Black and white
Then hid the colors dying in the light

I kept your secrets folded in my chest
Built a chapel from the things you never said
Now every whispered vow
Is caving in me now

You never were who you pretend to be
Every word
Another cut in me
I held my breath inside your borrowed scene
While you painted over everything I'd seen
You never were who you pretend to be
Just a stranger in the shape of what I need
I tore the mask and all that's left is empty
You never were who you pretend to be

I see the cracks beneath your porcelain
Hear the echo of the names you've worn
All the faces that you've cycled through
None of them were ever really you (were they?)

I'm peeling back your borrowed history
Every page a different alibi
Now I'm the ghost that walks away
While you're trapped in your disguise

You never were who you pretend to be
Every word
Another cut in me
I held my breath inside your borrowed scene
While you painted over everything I'd seen
You never were who you pretend to be
Just a stranger in the shape of what I need
I tear the mask and watch your kingdom empty
You never were who you pretend to be

You never were
You never were
Just an echo in a stolen body
You never were who you pretend to be