map on your skin

Another storm is gathering out past the shore, A familiar pressure, I've felt this all before I don't raise my fists, I don't curse the sky, I just watch the waves and wonder why And the wind, it carves a little deeper in the stone, A new design on a map of all I've known And these aren't cracks from where I'm breaking, They're the rivers and the peaks my soul is making A landscape of the hurt I've weathered and survived, The beautiful, bruised proof that I'm alive I tried to fight the current, tried to stand up tall, But some forces don't listen when a fragile thing must fall So I learned to bend within the gale, to let the pain refine, To trace the silver in the scars and call the fractures mine And when I saw you standing in your own defeated pose, I didn't see a hero who had never felt the blows I saw the quiet in your eyes, the stories you can't tell, I knew the sound of your heart's echo, I knew its broken spell You tried to hide the places where the light had torn you through, But I was counting constellations in the you that you thought was bruised 'Cause these aren't cracks from where you're breaking, They're the rivers and the peaks your soul is making A landscape of the hurt you've weathered and survived, The beautiful, bruised proof that you're alive And I don't love the man you were before the rain, I love the quiet strength that grew out of the pain I love the map upon your skin, the story it imparts I love the healed-over fractures of your two-tone heart