Sealed in a mason jar,
formaldehyde holds my heart.
“you’ve got no one to love
so you don’t need this part.”
That’s the only thing they said
when they left me out for dead.

I had a heart, and it had a beat.
I had a beat, and I kept it pretty well.

But without a reason, it won’t do what it’s suppose to do.
I just need you here to encourage it through.
Cause I can’t do it alone,
with you scrambling opposite of home.

When you get far enough,
turn back and tell me what you find,
You’re running toward the unknown,
knowing you got better on your mind.

I served you well, I wanted your best!
“but there’s better out there” you certainly attest.
Least it’s stored well,
so you can revive it back,
when you realize everything out yonder
eventually begins to attack.

They don’t want your best,
they don’t want your style,
all they will take is your dress and your smile.
So wherever you sleep,
keep home on your mind.
cause this formaldehyde heart has been preserved for you to find.

I’m empty, got a crack
that cannot be filled
from the direction I run.
I sit here and know you must pour me to full,
but there’s always distance between reality and my mind.
I stumble toward the water trough, thirsty
but am not fulfilled.
I was parched as I went, parched as I came.
These dry bones amble on.
I will accept none as a substitute,
yet cannot rest in reliance.

They set me on fire.
I’m burning
past the point where I need putting out;
i’m racking up the lessons.
There may be nothing valuable to salvage
if you don’t arrive in another instant.

I am bland, tasteless, as my tongue tastes no longer.
I was suppose to be the salt,
I was suppose to be the light,
but I am weak and dim.

This was not about the battalion,
but the warfare waged in my own spirit.
I heard squeals from the anguish on the inside,
but was unable to diagnose this dense pride.
You have pried opened my eyes,
as my own blood drips from my hands;
I need saving from myself.

You stripped me naked and brought on this valley,
for only you knew I would discover life !
Please expel breath into this creation
for our shallow lungs reveal all the wear.
Yet the extent of our pains
parallel the capabilities of our joy.
I fervently recognize you are everything forever claimed I am.
I will accept all you take away.
Open these doors to whatever makes me love you more,
because the others in which I eagerly knock whisper only of death.

My grave was this life,
yet you vindicate the broken.
You gift anew as if we held innocence.
Why did it take me so long to ask
for what you already promised you’d give ?