Dads

Yeah…

This one from the bottom of the basement where the light don’t reach.

Where a kid learned pain before he learned peace.

⸻

(Verse 1 – Stepdad)

I remember water fillin’ up my lungs, I was gaspin’ for air,

Hands on my shoulders, you ain’t even care.

Sink full of nightmares, bubbles in my scream,

Lookin’ at the ceiling like, “Is this what love means?”

Starved at the table while you fed your pride,

Empty plate, empty heart, tears I had to hide.

Belt marks mapped where my childhood used to be,

Bruises bloom purple like a twisted family tree.

Thrown through walls like I wasn’t even flesh,

Drywall crackin’ while my ribs felt the stress.

Every punch louder than the words you never said,

Silence in the house, but violence in my head.

Ignored when I cried, disrespected when I spoke,

Told me I was weak every time I choked.

You looked at me like I was somethin’ in your way,

Not a kid beggin’ just to hear “You’ll be okay.”

I learned how to flinch before I learned how to trust,

Learned how to bleed but never how to discuss.

You called it “discipline,” I call it survival,

Every scar proof I made it through your trial.

⸻

(Hook)

How you drown a child and still sleep at night?

How you steal his hunger, steal his fight?

How you beat his body, break his soul,

Then wonder why he ain’t feel whole?

I was just a kid tryna figure out love,

But all I ever felt was a fist from above.

Now I’m grown but the echoes still buzz—

Was I ever worth it, or never enough?

⸻

(Verse 2 – Real Dad)

And you… yeah, this part for you.

Blood in my veins but you vanished too.

You chose the needle, chose the high,

Chose a pipe over watchin’ your son cry.

I waited on the porch with a bag packed tight,

Every set of headlights—I thought it was you that night.

Birthdays passed like unopened mail,

You were somewhere chasin’ another trail.

I needed a father, needed a guide,

You needed a fix more than you needed your child.

I ain’t mad you struggled, I know addiction’s deep,

But I was your promise you didn’t keep.

You let another man put hands on me,

While you were lost in a cloud you couldn’t see.

I used to wonder if I wasn’t enough,

If I was too broken, too quiet, too tough.

Maybe if I smiled more, maybe if I tried—

Would you have picked me instead of the high?

⸻

(Bridge)

Two men taught me what love ain’t supposed to be,

One with his fists, one with his absentee.

But pain don’t get the last word in me,

I’m still breathin’, still standin’, still free.

⸻

(Final Verse – Breaking the Cycle)

Yeah, I was drowned but I learned how to swim,

Starved but I built strength from within.

Beat down low but I rose back tall,

Now I build doors where you made walls.

I ain’t what you did, I’m what I survived,

Every dark night I kept myself alive.

You couldn’t love me? That’s your shame—

I’m breakin’ the cycle, I’m changin’ the name.

I’m not the bruises, I’m not the fear,

I’m the grown man who’s still right here.

And if I ever have a son of my own—

He’ll never feel like he’s alone.

Yeah