Mama worked the daylight into dark
Chasing bills, chasing broken parts
We learned love through borrowed hands
Strangers raising someone else’s plans
Oldest sister tried her best
I learned silence from the rest
Little ones with tired eyes
Growing up before our time
They said we were “safe” where we stayed
But some hands leave a different kind of pain
Me and her, we learned too soon
Even daylight can feel like a room
We were just kids in borrowed rooms
Holding onto what we couldn’t choose
I raised myself quietly
In the spaces no one could see
Where the truth lived in my chest
But never made it past my teeth
I was breaking silently
While the world just let it be
But I’m still here, I didn’t drown
I built a life from falling down
They took us once, said “this ain’t right”
But wrong still found its way back inside
That’s when I met a man called “dad”
But he was something darker than that
Hands that should’ve kept me safe
Left shadows I still can’t erase
Told the truth, but no one stayed
Mama said it’d go away
But truth don’t fade when it’s carved that deep
It just learns how to hide and breathe
I raised myself quietly
In the fear they couldn’t see
Holding pieces of my soul
Like it was my responsibility
I was screaming silently
While they chose what to believe
But I’m still here, I didn’t break
Even when my world would shake
Then one night it all went wrong
Liquor loud, his hands too strong
He reached for her—I lost my fear
I became the voice no one would hear
I called the cops, I drew the line
Chose her life and lost mine
Door slammed shut, I walked away
With nothing but what I couldn’t say
And they called it “just a mistake”
But I knew what evil takes
I raised myself out of the fire
Out of truth they called a liar
Built a home with steady hands
Out of all that I couldn’t stand
I was hurting endlessly
But it didn’t bury me
I turned pain into a door
And I am not that girl anymore
Met a love that felt like light
Found a place that finally felt right
From the wreckage, from the pain
I grew something that could remain
I didn’t get the childhood I deserved
But I rewrote the ending in every word
Now my children sleep without fear
No shadows reaching for them here
No borrowed hands, no silent cries
Just love that stays, not love that hides
I became the safety I was missing
A gentle home, a life worth living
And every piece they tried to break in me
Built the mother I choose to be
