How Was I Supposed to Know How

Verse 1

She didn’t walk me through those doors

Didn’t warn me what a woman’s heart is for

Never taught me how to hold one right

So I broke the ones who tried to stay the night

She never showed me how to care or keep

So I learned to love in ways that cut too deep

Mama left me with an empty hand

So I passed the hurt to the one who took a stand

Pre-Chorus

My father never stepped in, he turned away

Didn’t teach me what a man should ever say

So I used every I love you too cheap

Even when I knew I wouldn’t keep

Chorus

How was I supposed to know how to love her right

When mama never showed me what that looked like?

How was I supposed to set the bar

When I ain’t never seen no woman fight for my heart?

So I hurt her, piece by piece

Turned her soft into something hard like me

I ain’t cruel, just broken in places she can’t see

How was I supposed to know, if she ain’t teach me?

Verse 2

I thought silence was a kind of care

So I left her crying, but I wasn’t there

I called distance a sign of love

’Cause I didn’t know a woman should lift me up

Never told her she was worth the fight

Only knew how to turn warmth cold at night

So I let bare minimum feel like gold

’Cause that’s the only kind of love I’d been told

Pre-Chorus

My father looked away, never raised me true

Didn’t show me how a man should follow through

’Cause mama never gave me that love one-on-one

So I mistook control for the real one

Chorus

How was I supposed to know how to love her right

When mama never showed me what that looked like?

How was I supposed to set the bar

When I ain’t never seen no woman fight for my heart?

So I hurt her, piece by piece

Turned her soft into something hard like me

I ain’t cruel, just broken in places she can’t see

How was I supposed to know, if she ain’t teach me?

Bridge

I needed arms that protected

Not ones that neglected

But I passed that neglect along

Now her strength is where I went wrong

So now, she’s leaving what I missed

Taking back her heart from every kiss

And I see too late what I should’ve been

I became the wound I was born within

Chorus

How was I supposed to know how to love her right

When my first woman left before I learned to fight?

Now she raises her standards like prayers to the sky

While I’m left alone just asking why

I still stumble, but now I see

The kind of man I never learned to be

And I pray my son won’t repeat what I’ve shown

So he won’t grow…

To hurt like I’ve known.