Half a Salary Ring

We crossed oceans with two backpacks

Stamps in the passport, miles in our eyes

Mexico sunsets, Europe after dark

Still counting dollars on red-eye flights

I was staring at rings behind glass

Doing math I didn’t know how to trust

Ten grand in the bank, future in my chest

Love asking questions money never does

My father was gone when I was twelve

Mom still standing, never sat down

Used to send me twenty bucks and a pizza

Just so I wouldn’t feel alone in town

Now here I am holding a promise

That costs more than she ever made

Half her salary on something that small

Trying not to be ashamed

I wasn’t scared of the diamond

I was scared of what it meant

I didn’t want our story starting

With people laughing at what I spent

I didn’t just want a ring that shined

I wanted one that said I stayed

That the loneliness stopped with me

That the nights alone finally paid

That love wouldn’t feel borrowed

That home wouldn’t disappear

I wasn’t buying jewelry

I was buying the future I never had here

After Dad passed and my sister left

Mom worked nights, then worked again

Lost my family in pieces

Long before I was a man

So that circle on her finger

Was more than gold and stone

It was proof I could build a table

And never eat alone

Dreams don’t stay dreams forever

They turn into numbers and plans

Weddings cost more than hope

And houses remember who you are

Then Brownsville called with keys and trust

A medical center, my name on the door

Six figures for the first time in my life

Still scared it could all be taken away

I stepped into a world my family never knew

A realm with no safety net

Where being good wasn’t enough

You had to be the best

I didn’t just want a ring that shined

I wanted one that broke the line

From scraping by to standing firm

From someday dreams to real-time

That love wouldn’t feel temporary

That home wouldn’t disappear

I wasn’t buying jewelry

I was buying the future I never had here

They never said it out loud

But I always felt the doubt

That without the degree

I could be written out

I was scared success could still leave me.

Now I see what it really cost me

And what it finally gave

I stopped just surviving the story

And started building a place

If pressure bent my shoulders

It never bent my aim

That ring wasn’t about money

It was about ending the pain

If love is a promise kept daily

And legacy means we stay

Then every dollar was worth it

To give our family a place