Sleep was supposed to carry us clean
Past the teeth, past the burning machine
Glass went red in the rescue light
Peaceful escape cracked overnight
Steel coughs smoke like a chapel lung
Names turn cold on a prison tongue
I brought the war through the salvage door
And lost the ones I was fighting for
The war was done, so we assumed
Something hatched inside the room
The ride home rotted into doom
A story ends with an exit wound
This is not home
This is not rest
This is a nightmare
With a pain in my chest
No child to wake
No soldier to save
Just two names gone cold
And the queen under my ribcage
Men made scripture from locked doors and rust
Turned guilt into discipline, hunger to trust
Then something came low through the steam and the vents
And prayer became panic in a few short breaths
No rifles, no armor, no cavalry flame
Just bodies as levers and corridors named
A numbered maze and a mouth in the wall
One wrong turn and the whole plan falls
It came for the kill with its shadow wide
Then spared my blood for something inside
Alien queen, makeshift womb
The story ends with an exit wound
This is not home
This is not rest
This is a nightmare
With a pain in my chest
No child to wake
No soldier to save
Just two names gone cold
And the queen under my ribcage
Run the corridor
Slam the door
Wrong turn
Dead on the floor
It crawls out burning
It won’t stay dead
Black shell splitting
In a river of lead
OPEN THE SPRINKLERS
SHOCK IT WITH RAIN
BOIL THE BLOOD
BREAK THE FRAME
Steam in the lights
Teeth in the roar
One last scream
On the foundry floor
CRACK THE BLACK
BURST THE HIDE
KILL WHAT MADE
THE ENDING DIE
This is not home
There’s nothing left
A final exit wound
I carry to my death
No deal can reach
No promise can save
I hold the queen down
In my breaking ribcage