Hollow

Hollow, hollow
I don't feel broken anymore
I think the pieces learned to stay
They settled somewhere under me
And built a home inside the ache

I don't wake up asking why
I don't beg the dark to leave
I just lie there in the quiet
With a stranger wearing me

There's a silence in my chest
That doesn't scream and doesn't heal
It only opens when I breathe
To remind me it is real

Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts
Hollow
I survived but something burned

Just to think that pain would pass
Like a storm above my head
But some rain becomes the ocean
Some ghosts climb into your bed

I kept waiting for the ending
For the credits, for the light
But the war just changed its language
And learned how to sleep at night

Now I smile at the right time
Say the words they wanna hear
I can stand inside a crowded room
And still just disappear

Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts
Hollow
I survived but something burns

Hollow
There's no blood under my skin
Hollow
Just a place I can't get in

I don't miss who I became
I miss who I was before
Before I made a shelter
Out of every locked door

Before I learned that letting go
Can feel a lot like being erased
Before I called the emptiness
A safer kind of place

And I know I should be grateful
I know I'm still alive
But living isn't
Always proof that something didn't die

Tell me where the feeling goes
When the heart gets tired of bleeding
Tell me what a soul becomes
When it survives by disappearing

I kept the body moving
I kept the lights turned on
I kept the world from knowing
Half of me was gone

Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts
Hollow
I survived but something burned

Hollow
If you call I might not hear
Hollow
I've been gone for years

I am not asking to be saved
I am not asking to be found
I just need someone to know
I didn't choose to empty out

I didn't leave myself on purpose
I didn't mean to fade this slow
I just got tired of carrying
What nobody else would hold

And maybe there's a room in me
Where the old light still remains
Maybe if I say enough
I can remember my own name

Maybe I'm not gone yet
Maybe I'm just far
Maybe hollow isn't empty
Maybe hollow is a scar

Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts
Hollow
I survived but something burns

There's still a voice beneath the dirt
Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts
Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts

Hollow
I'm hollow where it hurts
But I'm still here