Untitled

I WASN’T BORN BAD

I grew up on broken lessons

Half a child and half insane

Dreaming Jesse James TV would save me

Riding freedom like a train

Nobody talked about futures

Or building something that lasts

Just fights, fear, and survival

Trying to outrun the past

I ran wild at thirteen

With a fire in my veins

Dad’s belt cracked like thunder

Then the system knew my name

Juvenile halls and cold rooms

Living hard before my time

Trying to become a man

With no map and no guide

I thought rebellion was power

Thought pain was all I’d need

Nobody told me the difference

Between survival and peace

I wasn’t born bad

I was born unguided

Thrown to the wolves

Now there’s scars where I hide it

Life kept kicking

The ladder beneath me

Still I climbed back up

Even when it defeated me

I spent my whole damn life

Trying to outrun silence

Now I’m staring in the mirror

At the cost of surviving

I can’t count the times

I climbed my way back up

Only to watch life kick the ladder

And leave me in the dust

Started over empty

More times than I can say

Built a life with bleeding hands

Then watched it slip away

Yeah I made some money

Yeah I learned to survive

But survival ain’t the same thing

As building a real life

Now I know success and freedom

Ain’t always the same

Some people wear nice suits

While drowning in their pain

And every time I lost it all

I swore I’d finally change

But nobody heals correctly

When they’re raised inside a cage

I wasn’t born bad

I was born unguided

Thrown to the wolves

Now there’s scars where I hide it

Life kept kicking

The ladder beneath me

Still I climbed back up

Even when it defeated me

I spent my whole damn life

Trying to outrun silence

Now I’m staring in the mirror

At the cost of surviving

You wanna know the truth?

A kid don’t wake up evil.

He wakes up empty.

And if nobody teaches him how to build a future…

The streets will teach him how to survive one.

And survival…

Survival can turn into a prison all by itself.

I wasn’t born bad

Just unguided

Thrown to the wolves

Now I hide the scars

Life kept kicking

Still I climbed back up

Even when it nearly killed me

Now I’m sixty-five

Still fighting ghosts

Still carrying damage

Most never know

Funny thing about survival…

After a while

You don’t even know you’re bleeding anymore.

You just keep moving.

And one day you wake up old…

Wondering how the hell

You survived everything

But still lost so much.