I was Fifteen

I was fifteen with a broken sky
Grief in my lungs, learning how to survive
You were twenty-three with a savior smile
Saying “you’re just older than the girls your age inside”

I wore pain like a welcome sign
You called it love in a borrowed light
Said the world just didn’t understand
That our timing was the only thing not right

You said someday we’d tell the story
How the world just got it wrong
But the truth got louder every year
And now I hear it in your song

Don’t say we were wrong
Like we stood on equal ground
Like I wasn’t still a child
Trying to be someone you’d be proud of

Don’t say we were wrong
Like it’s blame we have to share
You were twenty-three and grown
I was fifteen and scared

So don’t rewrite the truth
Just so your conscience can be clean
You were a man with choices
I was only fifteen

You told me I was different
Not like the girls my age
But that’s the oldest line in the book
For dressing up a cage

I thought loving you meant growing up
Faster than my bones could bend
But the man I see in hindsight
Should’ve known where lines should end

And now you send an apology
Like it’s medicine for scars
But you can’t undo a childhood
With a message from afar

Don’t say we were wrong
Like the fault was shared between
Two hearts that knew the difference
Of twenty-three and fifteen

Don’t say we were wrong
Like we chose the same mistake
You had years of life behind you
I had barely learned to break

So don’t soften what it was
Just because it makes you bleed
You were the one who knew better
I was just a kid who believed

You called it love
I called it fate
Now I call it something else
That took me years to name

Because the girl you met
Was drowning already
And you didn’t throw a rope
You just held her steady

And now you say you’re sorry
Like that settles everything
But men don’t fall in love with children
No matter what they think

Don’t say we were wrong
When you know what it should mean
You were twenty-three and certain
I was barely seventeen

Don’t ask forgiveness
Just to quiet what you’ve seen
You were a grown man standing there

And I was only fifteen.

female, pop, rock