Gaelynn Lea
My Own Beating Heart
Once when I was young I let myself drift
Past the safety buoys off Virginia Beach
My sister swam out to save me
I told them I wasn't thinking
But I knew what I'd done
I just felt so alone
And I tested the strength of their love

It's not really something that I think about
Til the gates crack open and I see the doubt
Simmering under the surface
Times when I've lost my purpose
And it haunts me again
Like the ghost of a child
Who's never quite felt she's enough

How can you tell who you are?
Do you read something in the stars?
Does it come to you through your friends?
Does it make you feel whole in the end?
For that I'd give the flesh of my own beating heart

I love a man so much I can barely breathe
I push against him til he walks away from me
Til I feel my pulse again
And I need to pull him back in
Like a soldier on guard
Or collapsed in his arms
Remembering a world without sin