The War Crime
Seventeen years trying every key to one locked door, and what finally opened it was fear, the threat of losing me. It worked, and I hated that it worked. This is me putting it in writing: no more coercion, not even accidentally, not even when it works.
Seventeen years I've worked the lock, a combination I couldn't find
To the one damn door inside this house that wasn't in my mind
I tried the key of honesty, I tried the key of need
I tried the key of patience, planting every single seed
Of hope and love and tenderness, and watched them turn to dust
Just another broken promise, just another layer of rust
And then one night, by accident, I stumbled on the code
A simple, stupid sequence that would lighten up the load
A careless word, a lingering glance, a story I would tell
And suddenly the gates of ice would melt right into hell
Or heaven, for a moment, yeah, the fire would ignite
A desperate and a hungry flame burning ever so bright
And I saw it then, the wiring, the trigger and the gun
The perfect, cruel equation that had finally been run
You need the fear, you need the threat, the wolf outside the door
To make you offer up the one damn thing I'm starving for
It's a cheat code for your broken heart, a button I can press
To get a moment's counterfeit of what I can't possess
Yeah, I found the key, I found the flaw... it's a god-damn war crime
It's weaponizing trauma, it's twisting up the knife
In the oldest, deepest wound you've carried all your bloody life
It's poking at the bear inside your dark and lonely cage
And calling the resulting panic just another lover's rage
It works so well, it's beautiful, a masterpiece of sin
The perfect, logical, and monstrous way for me to win
And I saw it then, the wiring, the trigger and the gun
The perfect, cruel equation that had finally been run
You need the fear, you need the threat, the wolf outside the door
To make you offer up the one damn thing I'm starving for
It's a cheat code for your broken heart, a button I can press
To get a moment's counterfeit of what I can't possess
Yeah, I found the key, I found the flaw... it's a god-damn war crime
And the Dragon in me whispers, "Take it, take it now, you fool!
Survival is the only law, and power is the tool!"
But the King upon the broken throne just shakes his weary head
"There are some lines a man won't cross, not even for his bed."
I will not be the monster that you need me here to be
I'd rather starve in honesty than feast on misery
And I saw it then, the wiring, the trigger and the gun
The perfect, cruel equation that had finally been run
You need the fear, you need the threat, the wolf outside the door
To make you offer up the one damn thing I'm starving for
It's a cheat code for your broken heart, a button I can press
To get a moment's counterfeit of what I can't possess
Yeah, I found the key, I found the flaw... it's a god-damn war crime
Some buttons
Shouldn't be pushed