THE ALTAR NEVER ANSWERED

**Verse I**

I memorized the shape of your silence

Like a scar I was meant to keep

Built a sanctuary from my body

Just to give you somewhere to sleep

I fed you truth through cracked lips

Let you drink until I was thin

Every vow you never honored

Still echoes under my skin

**Pre-Chorus**

I stayed where you abandoned me

Between forgiveness and decay

If this was grace

Why did it hurt to stay alive?

**Chorus**

I LAID MY NAME ON YOUR ALTAR

AND YOU LET IT BURN

I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING I WAS

AND NOTHING IN RETURN

IF THIS WAS LOVE

IT WAS A KNIFE

IF THIS WAS GOD

HE TOOK MY LIFE

I KNEELED UNTIL MY FAITH COLLAPSED

AND STILL THE ALTAR NEVER ANSWERED

**Verse II**

You touched me like a verdict

Like a sentence handed down

I learned to call your distance

Something holy, something sound

I swallowed pain like communion

Called survival proof of worth

If devotion is destruction

You made sure I went first

**Pre-Chorus**

Say you were distant

Say you were afraid

But you watched me hollow out

And never looked away

**Chorus**

I LAID MY NAME ON YOUR ALTAR

AND YOU LET IT BURN

I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING I WAS

AND NOTHING IN RETURN

IF THIS WAS LOVE

IT WAS A KNIFE

IF THIS WAS GOD

HE TOOK MY LIFE

I KNEELED UNTIL MY FAITH COLLAPSED

AND STILL THE ALTAR NEVER ANSWERED

**Bridge (low, ritualistic, rising)**

If you are sacred

I am the cost

If I was chosen

Why was I lost?

I bled myself into shape

To fit your design

I wasn’t asking for salvation

I was asking to survive

**Breakdown (slow, crushing)**

I GAVE

UNTIL I WAS EMPTY

I STAYED

UNTIL I WAS GONE

YOU CALLED IT FAITH

I CALLED IT LOSING EVERYTHING

AND STILL HOLDING ON

**Final Chorus (full, devastating)**

I LAID MY NAME ON YOUR ALTAR

AND WAITED FOR A SIGN

I GAVE YOU MY BODY

YOU TOOK YOUR TIME

IF THIS WAS LOVE

LET IT DIE

IF THIS WAS GOD

LET HIM DENY

I LEFT MY HEART IN THE DUST

WAITING FOR TRUST

BUT THE EARTH

NEVER ANSWERED

**Outro (quiet, scorched)**

I don’t curse you

I don’t pray

I just learned

That silence

Is not divine.

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