You don’t need chains when the leash is soft and the collar says “I’m fine”
I built excuses like a temple, prayed at the altar of your temper
Love, I heard loyalty, and now I can’t tell the fucking difference
Your kisses came wrapped in ultimatums, your touch like ice with teeth
I learned to flinch like second nature,
smiled through the bruises you left in my head
And every “I’m sorry” you whispered just sounded like “stay”
Poison is a pet name now, and I drink it like it’s wine
Every fight a ritual, every silence timed
I know you’re killing me slow–but you do it in such a familiar way
I started lying to mirrors, calling this control “protection”
You dressed your rage in roses, and I swallowed thorns just to keep the peace
Said I was lucky, said I was loved–just never said I could leave
You never hit me with fists, but your words were blunt enough to knock me out
And now I’m the ghost in my own life,
tiptoeing through your moods like mine don’t matter
They don’t, do they? I’ve been rewired to crave the cage
But one day, when you sleep, I’ll remember who I was before your voice
I’ll spit out the poison, even if I bleed on the way out
Because surviving you will be the only love song worth singing