Would've Been — Summary

Don't whisper in my ear, The sweet things you did before, Nothing practical to hear, Just the thick lies, Pouring from your mouth like the blood in my heart, And the sorrow of your good byes,

Don't tell you still care for me, 'Cause I'm a would've been, Should've been, Never was, And never ever will be, Twas the first lie you bled,

Packing up and leaving my side, Which has to be sewn up with the thread of threads, For you made me lose my confident stride, I might as well be dead,

I was turned away at heaven, And locked right out of hell, No where to turn, No one helped me when I fell.

You can't shout in the water, With out getting liquid in your lungs, Which would lessen the pain of slaughter, And kill the joy of release, So look ahead and shut your eyes, Finally save the peace.

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The speaker is talking to someone who left them and now wants to comfort them with kind words. The speaker refuses to listen. They call those words lies and say that being told "I still care" only reminds them they were never the real thing, just a "would've been" and a "should've been." The leaving feels physical, like a wound that needs sewing shut, and it has knocked away their confidence.

The mood is raw, bitter and hopeless. The lines about being turned away at heaven and locked out of hell make the speaker sound stranded, with nowhere to go and no one who helped. The ending is harder to pin down. The image of shouting underwater suggests that crying out only hurts more, and the closing advice to "shut your eyes" and "save the peace" can be read as a plea to let it end quietly, or as a darker wish to stop feeling anything at all.

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