I kept small gods in quiet rooms
With lamps I never let die
I fed them songs and sleepless hours
And called their hunger mine
I bowed before the borrowed flame
And mistook warmth for light
I wore devotion like a chain
And called the burden right
But morning came without a choir
No thunder split the sky
Just dust upon the altar stones
And truth behind my eyes
No more shrines
To things that cannot stay
No more candles burning holes
In the middle of my day
I won’t curse the light I found
I won’t call the fire a lie
But I’m closing all the rooms
Where old ghosts go to hide
I wrote my prayers on paper wings
And watched them learn to fall
The heavens I had built by hand
Were only painted walls
So let the ashes keep their names
Let silence keep the key
I do not need a holy place
To kneel and still be free
No more shrines
To things that cannot stay
No more candles burning holes
In the middle of my day
I won’t curse the light I found
I won’t call the fire a lie
But I’m closing all the rooms
Where old ghosts go to hide
I kept small gods in quiet rooms
But now I leave them there
No more shrines, no more chains
Just morning, breath, and air
