Unopened Letter - September Stories.mp3

[00:13.806] And dear love
[00:15.087] This is the fifth time that I’ve written you today
[00:17.470] Or maybe the sixth, after three they tend to all start to blend together
[00:21.636] But regardless of the number, the meaning still remains
[00:24.933] The ink that I’ve split onto this sheet is stained with the guilt you carried
[00:28.938] From the first week of knowing you
[00:31.188] Even those first few words that you uttered out of that entrancing mouth of yours
[00:36.032] I took too far to heart
[00:38.262] But the realization that they had steadily become rotten was far more withstand-able
[00:43.305] No... Convincing myself that what I took for real was just a twisted illusion
[00:48.119] And that your words could be held with some sense of meaning…
[00:52.326] Was far easier to withstand
[00:54.193] You see, I just wanted to act like I had a perfect life, like we were perfect, like nothing else in the world could be anymore perfect
[01:04.785] But I guess I’ll never get that
[01:33.245] And maybe it was my illusion of perfection
[01:35.676] Or how that word was engraved into my brain every time you’d look at me with that relentless stare
[01:41.412] That haunting, creeping stare that I so loathed
[01:44.822] But I didn’t loathe it enough to not let it ensnare me
[01:47.857] Though I knew of the branches’ thorns
[01:49.997] I let it wrap itself around me
[01:51.605] Drawing blood with every inch that it covered
[01:53.831] With every limb that it captured and claimed its own
[01:57.288] I let it creep and crawl its way around me
[01:59.888] Until I had nothing left to call my own
[02:02.337] Which made the cutting of the branches that much harder
[02:04.976] Pieces of me trapped between the thorns
[02:07.509] Tearing apart and leaving the hollow being that I like to call a body
[02:11.108] 'Cause that’s all that was left
[02:13.093] It’s like the lights were on and the water was running
[02:15.685] But I couldn’t have been any further gone
[02:18.477] Scarred, scraped, and just remnants of what I once was
[02:21.791] Left to rot and wither as the branches claimed what they thought rightfully theirs
[02:25.845] Moving on to the next with no less sympathy than the last
[02:34.061] For months I tried to hate, tried to resent, tried to forget
[03:21.514] And I know that you’re the last person that I should want to see, but it’s just not that way to me
[03:26.325] Because every time I look at the scars you left covering the undersides of my arms
[03:30.531] I only see the beauty that once was
[03:32.875] I only see the times that we enjoyed, not the times that we regret
[03:36.353] The times you left me starstruck and teary-eyed and not broken and alone
[03:40.761] Please God, I just wish you had poured meaning in the word we call “love”
[03:45.161] Made it more than a word, at least that’s how it was to me
[03:48.891] 'Cause even after I’ve picked out every last thorn that’s dug itself neck deep into my skin
[03:54.430] I can’t toss them into the flames like every photo from when I once knew you
[03:58.850] Because the pain, it reminds me
[04:07.433] I wish I’d known what you had wanted
[04:10.239] Wanted all along
[04:12.840] Thought you wanted me, my heart on my sleeve
[04:16.090] I had thought wrong
[04:18.777] I wish I’d known what you had wanted
[04:21.714] Wanted all along
[04:24.211] Thought you wanted me, my heart on my sleeve
[04:27.463] I had thought wrong
[04:30.047] I wish I’d known what you had wanted
[04:33.184] Wanted all along
[04:35.634] Thought you wanted me, my heart on my sleeve
[04:38.924] I had thought wrong
[04:41.786] I wish I’d known what you had wanted
[04:44.583] Wanted all along
[04:47.079] Thought you wanted me, my heart on my sleeve
[04:50.566] I had thought wrong
[04:53.165] I wish I’d known what you had wanted
[04:56.067] Wanted all along
[04:58.397] Thought you wanted me, my heart on my sleeve
[05:01.753] I had thought wrong
[05:04.504] I wish I’d known what you had wanted
[05:07.366] Wanted all along
[05:09.844] Thought you wanted me, my heart on my sleeve
[05:13.180] I had thought wrong
[05:16.102] I wish I knew